mobrec

So
Tivo users watch less live TV than others. Really? this is news?

Isn't the whole point of having a DVR is to NOT have to watch live TV? Move along – nothing to see here.

So
Let's start with the baiting title “Why Android tablets failed: A postmortem”. And, as is typical, there is nothing in the article to substantiate such a ludicrous claim. Android tablets owning a 20-40% share of the tablet market is a 'failure'? Hmmm.

Let take a look at the four main reasons why Android tablets 'failed':

4) “the 16x9 problem” – not a problem from what I can tell and quite simply the opinion of the article's author. No credible UX studies, just the bald assertion that the screen is 'awkward' and 'odd'. Or stated differently, it is bad because it isn't an iPad. 16x9 will, of course, become an innovative breakthrough when Apple releases a tablet in that form factor.

3) “Enterprise doesn't trust Android” – yep, that is why most corporation provide their employees with Android-based phone and address the security issues. The same security models exist for the tablets. Again, an uniformed opinion, unsubstantiated by facts.

2) “Lack of Apps” – this is a popular one that has been proven false. Apple certainly has the fart machine app market cornered. I would love to hear a list of significant apps that are in the Apple space that don't have Android analogs. Otherwise, the Android market has a stable of quite good apps (and more arriving daily. The statements around HTML5 apps are laughably out of touch.

1) “the price” – one year old data point is cited (Motorola Xoom). However, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is selling quite well (at least where Apple isn't trying to prevent it from being sold). Again, not facts, just an erroneous assertion.

Conclusion: Apple fan-boys hate the alternatives because they recognize in other tablets what Apple can't deliver with the iPad.

So
Best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012.

Oh, and hopefully we can silence the world ending this year nonsense once and for all. I am sure there are some who won't be convinced until January 2013.

So
I am a bit amazed at the manufactured frenzy that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It seems that each year the press does their very best to hype something that really doesn't have a need to exist any longer (and probably doesn't for the majority of people).

There really is no reason for people to be pitching tents in front of retailers the day before Thanksgiving so they can be first in line for the big 'deals'. Is this really more of a social thing than a necessary thing? Do this people not value their own time? Or do they (the sheeple) do it because the press tells them that is what they should do? Are the press trying to justify their repeated (if not specious) claim that the day after Thanksgiving is 'the busiest shopping day of the year' when actual facts (something that journalism in this country seems to have only a nodding acquaintance with of late) show that the weekend before Christmas is typically the busiest shopping day. The only thing that I bought on 'Black Friday' was a couple of pints at the pub – well away from the shopping mayhem.

The 'Cyber Monday' hype is another head scratcher. I could see how this might have been significant a decade ago when most people didn't have high speed internet connectivity at home and availed themselves of their employer's internet pipe after returning from Thanksgiving holiday. But now most people *do* have high speed connectivity at home. And not only that, they have high speed connectivity at home the other 364 days of the year as well; so there is no practical need to wait for a specific day to do their online ordering. In fact, quite a few folks I know begin shopping online as early at October to insure that they get the selection they want and have plenty of time to deal with backorders and special orders.

Figure it out folks. Don't believe the hype.

So
I have been waiting for this trend to catch on for a long, long time. After more than a decade we are only now beginning to shed the vulgarities and visual clutter of the BLINK tag, Flash, animated GIFs, ActiveX, embedded (and auto playing) sound files and Java Applets to start focusing on actually conveying information in a clean and readable way.

The Readable Future

The ability to read uncluttered web pages is going mainstream.

I made the point recently that technical people can avoid, or at least cut down on, ads, sharing buttons, and clutter when reading web pages — they have RSS readers, Instapaper, Readability, Safari’s Reader button, AdBlock, Flipboard, Zite, and so on.

Not all of these technologies were made with the goal of uncluttering web pages, but they have that effect. No app built for reading starts with the premise that the publisher has done an acceptable job.

That premise is, unfortunately, generally correct, and those apps and technologies are becoming more and more popular, particularly with the rise of iPad as a great reading device. (But this isn’t only about iPads, or even mobile.)

Publications shouldn’t ignore this trend.

This trend means that their medley-of-madness designs will increasingly be routed-around, starting with presumably their most-favored readers, the more affluent and technical, but extending to the less-affluent and less-technical until it includes just about everybody.

The future is, one way or another, readable.

So
I recently reacquainted myself with just how bad employees at the AT&T store really are.

I stopped in because my phone (a Samsung Captivate) started behaving bizarrely when it came to WiFi. The issue was that it would take 3-4 attempts at enabling wifi to get it to actually connect to the wifi network. This was reflected in a cycle of “connecting” and “failed” messages. In some cases, I would have to restart the phone. A restart is painful as it takes about 15 minutes for the media scanner to finish doing it's thing and the phone to be usable again (I am not sure if this might be a symptom of the same problem).

I explained this to the AT&T associate and asked if he had any advice. He snatched the phone out of my hand, looked at the screen and proclaimed 'that ain't right'. He then proceeded to pop open the battery door and flick the battery out of the phone. I pointed out that that was not the proper way to shutdown a phone. He looked up at me and grunted then replaced the battery. I reminded him that it was going to be about 15 minutes before the phone was usable; again he responds with a grunt and a 'that ain't right'.

After a minute or two he gets impatient and ejects the battery out of the phone WHILE it is still booting up. He squints at the battery 'to make sure it ain't a knock off – that causes lots of problems'. Satisfied that it was a 'real' battery he places it in the phone again.

While it is booting up he blurts out 'you probably need to upgrade the firmware in the phone – that'll fix the problem'. I asked what the 'issue' was; he responded with a shrug and a reassurance that the firmware will fix the phone. I then pointed out that I had already updated the firmware and still have the issue. He starts nervously tossing the phone from hand to hand and staring out the window. He then raises the phone to his face and starts poking around in the settings. 'You got a external memory card installed?' I said that I did. 'It is probably that. Yeah. The memory card is corrupt and that is causing the problem'. I asked him to clarify how a bad memory card would effect the wifi and he had nothing. I then pointed out that if the card was corrupt, I wouldn't be able to read anything from it. Again he shrugs and starts to get an agitated look on his face.

I say to him, if it is a bad memory card then removing it should make the problem go away. Fun boy grunts again, pops the back of the phone and hot ejects the card, while the phone is still powered on. I pointed out to him that if the card wasn't corrupt before doing ignorant shit like that would contribute to corrupting it. That just got me a side long glance. I asked to speak to the manager; he looks nervously around and says that the manager isn't in. I ask one of the other employees and they point to the guy on the phone behind the counter. While I wait for the manager to free up, we continue with the diagnostic farce.

Surprise, surprise. With the card out of the phone, the wifi and performance issues persist. He taps the phone on the counter then announces 'you have installed some software on here that has a virus on it, that is what is causing the problem'. Hmm, now we really are reaching. I point out that I haven't installed a lot of new apps on the phone and the ones that I have are very well known and were all installed from the android marketplace (in fact, the phone only allows marketplace installs). Nope, definitely a virus. Have to factory reset the phone.

I point out that there are some things on the phone that I would like to backup. He hands me back the phone, steps away and puts both hands up in front of him, palms out. 'Ain't nothin else I can do for you 'til you fact-tree reset that phone'. I ask what I do after I fact-tree reset it and it still has a problem. He shrugs and takes another step away. 'uh, call us…'

The manager finally frees up, so I go tell him about my experience: in the course of my visit, the issue with my phone was 1) fake battery 2)firmware 3)memory card 4)a virus . The manager looks across the room at the guy who was 'helping' me, then at the phone, then at me. Silence. Finally he comes up with 'Um, maybe you should try the reset and see what happens'. And then what? I ask. 'uh, call us…'

I got home, backed up my phone, factory reset it. Same behavior as before. I am not going to waste any more time with AT&T.

So
My wife was out of town for a few days so I decided to make sure her iPad was up to date for her return. I went into the AppStore (which by the way indicated that there were no updates) and then the updates section. It then indicated that there were 47 updates available. Wow, I guess it has been a while. I then selected Update All – and the fun began. The iPad churned for a bit then spat out the utterly useless popup 'Application not compatible with your iPad'. Huh? Not which app or which version or how to fix it or find out more, just 'not compatible'.

I guessed that it was something to do with the recent iOS 5 update so I plugged the iPad into iTunes and away it went with the iOS update. About two hours later it was finally done updating to iOS 5. I go back to the AppStore app and I now have 37 updates to install (what happened to the other 10 is a mystery). I select update all and AppStore obnoxiously throws me out to some random screen while it begins the update. I let it spin for a while then tried to determine what it had installed and what it hadn't – not an easy task on an iPad.

You see, if you return to the AppStore, it doesn't tell you what has been installed and what is pending, it just crashes. I guess I am used to Android, where the notification screen tells you exactly what is going on with installs and even shows you the status of the current install, all on one screen. Apple engineers decided that if you wanted to know about installs you had to swipe all over to find which apps still had a hollow bar on them, and then swipe around to find the currently updating app and guess how far along it is. Yep, that is a fantastic user experience, Apple.

So
Listening to the hastily assembled coverage that emerged after the unfortunate death of Steve Jobs made me think that Google search doesn't exist or that journalists are too dumb to know how to use it. In no particular order, here is what they got wrong:

“Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple.” I seem to remember there being another guy named Steve who was there at the beginning, one Mister Wozniak.

“Apple invented the MP3 player.” Not by a long shot. MP3 players existed for years before the iPod. None of them were as popular as the iPod.

“Apple invented the tablet computer.” Again, not even close. Tablet computers existed for nearly a decade before the iPad.

“Apple invented the smartphone.” Entirely true if you don't take into account all of the smartphones that Nokia and Sony Ericsson had on the markets (quite successfully) for years before the iPhone.

Come on guys, it isn't that tough to get the details right.

So
The Kindle Fire was announced last week to great fanfare and unchallenged hyperbolic claims. To me it just seemed like Amazon did little more than 'invent' the Nook three years after Barnes & Noble did.

Price was one of the big points that was claimed to make the Fire a huge hit. Not many journalists bothered to read the press release – those low prices are for the units that constantly shove advertising in your face. You can pay $30-40USD extra to get rid of the ads.

Availability of all of Amazon's content was heralded as another component that was going to make Fire reign supreme. I am not so sure this is as compelling as it is being made out to be. For one, I can consume all of Amazon's goods on my existing tablet (a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1). This could turn out to be a huge negative if the Fire is perceived simply as a content delivery portal and less a general purpose tablet. Here Amazon is trying to make the same play that Apple did with iTunes – trying to wrap consumers paid contents up so that it is not so much purchased as it is rented.

Recent numbers claim that there are over 250,000 pre-orders for the new Kindle, but of course, as with the original Kindle, there is no way to verify the numbers. Nor will there be any way to verify the returns when consumers discover that all they can do with the Kindle is buy stuff from Amazon and not much else.

So
They would probably be growing even more if Apple weren't running around the planet trying to prevent Samsung's tablet from being sold. Litigate rather than innovate, Apple.

From the Digitimes posting:

Lin pointed out that Android-based smartphones took two years after launch to surpass iPhone in terms of shipments and sales in 2010 and are currently still seeing the gap with iPhone expanding.

In the future, Lin believes Google's upcoming Android operating system codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, which will unify its smartphone and tablet platforms into one system, and smartphone's strong software application ecosystem, which can quickly enhance applications to support tablet products, will help resolve the issues about Android tablets lacking support for software applications.

With Android tablets' hardware design and price point to gradually reach a consumer satisfying point, Android tablets should see the same come-from-behind results as Android smartphones, and enjoy similar shipment and sale volumes as iPad in 2012, Lin added.