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Windows era is ending

Posted by Nolan at 9:07 PM on July 30, 2010

It’s true. I am aware of the percentage of people who have windows installed on their desktop and laptops. Further, the monopoly will not collapse it will erode, and quicker than you might expect. I moved from a city where the local lake has risen nearly 30 feet in the last 20 years. Everyone said, “It’s going to stabilize, it won’t. . .” It did. The Windows era is ending.

Why? The diversity of mobile OS’s. Apple, Google, HP, and the other smartphone and mobile companies have destroyed Windows in the mobile market. Their mobile OS’s integrate with Windows desktop leaving little reason for users to switch to a Windows mobile OS. As the computing industry moves toward mobility and the cloud it will mean most people will use the web and cloud on non-windows systems for their phone. The largest computing market in the world are the developing countries. These people will be using their phones not desktops and laptops. I am not alone in this opinion, a good read is the article at Gigaom from a Mary Meeker presentation.

But that is not the worst for Windows. Five years ago I would bet only 10 in 100 people could give you the name of another operating system of any kind desktop or mobile. Microsoft owned the OS market name. Computers were Microsoft. Not anymore. Android, iOS, Symbian, Linux, and others are known by the majority of people. Software companies long since loyal to Windows are going to diversify. They want some of the money from the iPad, Android, Chrome, and Palm branches. The web is going to make it easy. Put their software on the web and it’s over. Further, enter the influence of social media. Windows used to mean computers. Now Facebook and Twitter mean computing. Whatever can get a user to those locations is what is important. Can you hear the old barn creaking? Can you see the new buildings being built? It is like the end of an era on the old farm.

None of this is to say that Microsoft is going to crash or stop making a profit. I simply believe they are not going to be taking the growth of the new market. They will continue but other companies are going to take the new market of computing. The era is ending.

Posted in Android, Apple, IPAD, Microsoft, RIM, Windows, google, iPhone

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July Tech Podcast Round Table!

Posted by geeknews at 3:22 PM on July 30, 2010

Join us Saturday July 31st at 1:00PM Pacific – 4:00PM Eastern for the Tech Podcast Roundtable.

Joining us:

Norbert Davis: MaxiVista app for iPad
Jeffrey Powers: Help a Reporter.com
Tech Podcast Network members will also share some of their gear setups as well!

To participate in the Round Table is very simple, 15 Minutes before we start Simply Click this link! GotoMeeting will load automatically and then you can then choose to either dial in, or participate with a headset via VOIP.

Special Note: In the next week TechPodcasts.com is going to go through its second major update with RawVoice at the helm, the site is going to have a brand new designed home page and the site will be 100% HTML5 compatible. When you visit TPN you will be able to listen and watch the most recent episodes on the site. We are also excited about the growth of TechPodcasts.tv which in the coming weeks will start featuring scheduled streaming content. TechPodcasts.com is leading new RawVoice initiatives in our network development. Have you seen TPN shows on the Roku or Boxee? If not you should pick up a Roku today to watch of listen to your favorite Tech Podcast Network shows from your living room.

Tech Podcast Network always has child safe, & educational content from a wide diverse set of content creators. TPN is always looking for new sponsors for its network of shows, the network reaches millions of early adopters each and every week. We encourage you to contact ceo@rawvoice.com if you think you would or know someone that would be willing to advertise in our network of shows. All referals are elgible for our 10% finders fee which could be worth 10′s of thousands of dollars.

Finally we hope to see you on Saturday for our monthly Tech Podcast Network Round Table

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Tags: techpodcasts.com

Posted in Information

Comments 1 Comment

A Review of Gazelle

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 11:39 AM on July 30, 2010

When the new Iphone 4 came out I upgraded to it from an Iphone 3GS. Which meant that I needed to sell my Iphone 3GS. I thought of using Ebay or Craigslist, but I didn’t feel like going through the hassle. I had heard about Gazelle, through several podcast I listen too and it had gotten good recommendations so I decided to give it a try. After looking around I decided to also sell my PSP, Apple TV and DS Lite. The first thing you do when you go to the Gazelle site is you input the items you are going to sell and what condition they are in. It is important to be honest when you state the condition, you have the choice of poor, fair, good or excellent. It will also ask you if you have all the parts to the item you are selling, including the power adapter and any other cables that go with the item. They then let you know what price they will give you for the item. The price is a current price and will change over time. If you have older items that aren’t worth anything they will recycle the item for you. All together my items came to $235.00. You then choose how you want your payment sent either by check, Paypal or Amazon gift card. You can also elect to send the money to the non-profit group of your choice.

I decided to have my payment sent through Paypal. I then received an email with the packing slip and the shipping label. I do know they have boxes they send out at a certain price point, but I am not sure what that is. I packed up my items and brought it down to the local Fed Ex store on Monday, July 19. I got an email on the evening of July 22, that they had received my package and confirmed all the items in it. At that point they began to test each item separately to make sure it is working and in the condition I said it was. For example, I had checked to make sure my PSP turned on, but that’s all I had done. I hadn’t used it in such a long time that I had forgotten there was a sim card stuck in it and that it would start but then all of a sudden turn off after a short time. After they tested that item, I received an email with the problems they found and the reduce price they could offer. I had the option of either accepting the reduce price or they would send the item back to me. I chose to go with the reduced price.

The first item they tested was my Iphone and I received my first payment in Paypal on Saturday the 24th. After each item was tested, I received an email confirming how much they would pay. If you are looking to receive one lump sum, then Gazelle may not be the way to go, but I prefer their method. Its been almost two weeks now and I have received payment for all my items except the Apple TV, which I suspect will come in the next couple of days. All in all I am very pleased with the service, and would use them again. I do wish they would use UPS instead of Fed Ex, that is only because there are 2 UPS stores or drop off points within 5 minutes of where I live and I have to go downtown to get to the Fed Ex store. Other then that I would recommend using Gazelle to sell your small electronic items.

Tags: old electronics, review, selling

Posted in Information

2 Comments

Becoming More Familiar With Android

Posted by tomwiles at 9:12 AM on July 30, 2010

I’ve been living with my Sprint HTC Evo phone for a while now, and I am still learning some interesting things about Android – at least the HTC/Sprint version.

Overall I’m still extremely pleased with the Evo. This is still one of the coolest gadgets I’ve ever come across.

I was having a bit of a problem with stability. Sometimes the phone would reboot for no apparent reason, usually after a few hours of leaving the WiFi hotspot feature turned on. One time it rebooted for no apparent reason while I was in the middle of a call.

I started experimenting with a free app called Advanced Killer Pro. I started looking through the list of running processes, and I was surprised to find quite a number of processes tied to installed programs I have never ran, many of which came preinstalled on the phone.

So, I simply started going through the list and killing various processes that I wasn’t using. That really did the trick – Android has been rock-solid since then and at this point a few days have passed since the last reboot. In the interim I’ve been making heavy use of the phone and the WiFi hotspot feature.

To be fair to HTC and Sprint, there is an available system update that I’ve been putting off installing that might fix some of these issues. Initially when this update came out there were many reports of bricked Evo’s, and even though HTC has since come out with an updated version of the offending system update, I am leery of installing it.

What if the update hopelessly bricked my phone? Evo’s are very difficult to get right now. Most Sprint dealers are waiting for new stock, and most of that stock is probably already sold to waiting customers. Why take the chance?

Over the years of my geekdom, I’ve had my share of updates gone wrong, bricking a few devices such as motherboards, mp3 players and aircards, not to mention countless Windows updates that have caused serious heartburn.

So, in the meantime I’m likely going to continue to wait for a while until Evo’s become a bit more plentiful before I run the system update. I might even wait for the 2.2 “Froyo” update or even beyond. Killing unused processes makes the phone super stable and everything is working perfectly, so the old adage “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” seems like good advice to follow for the moment.

Tags: Android, app, Evo, familiar, gadgets, HTC, Killer, pro, sprint

Posted in Android, Operating Systems, application, geek, review, sprint

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Digital Newspapers

Posted by Andrew at 2:14 AM on July 30, 2010

PDA-247 logo Following on from some of early articles this week on news and newspapers, Shaun at PDA-247 has written a blog post Digital Newspapers: Stuck at Page One? which covers his experience of The Times Online on the iPad.

In the post, he thinks that he’s getting value for me for his £2 a week as the content and presentation are good. Although some people are still reluctant to pay for news content, he’s done the maths and even with the (assumed) 90% reduction in subscribers, the website will still pull in £1 million every year. Not huge money, but it’s early days.

Shaun says that people are used to getting something physical for their money. People like the physicality of books and DVDs though I think it’s as much about having the item to show off your good taste rather than the item itself. Anyway, the physical nature of books and DVDs hardly counts when it comes to newspapers as most people throw them away once the paper is read.

He closes by suggesting that newspaper reading is dwindling because of competing pressure on our free time. This is the era of satellite TV, the internet, the social network and the poor old newspaper has fallen by the wayside.

All good points and worth giving the orginal article a quick read.

Tags: IPAD, news, newspapers

Posted in IPAD, news

Comments 1 Comment

GNC-2010-07-29 #597 Yes the Net is Working Here!

Posted by geeknews at 6:08 PM on July 29, 2010

Close call for us in Hawaii, cut fiber do not bode well for Internet reliability but we are up and online. Lot’s of exciting things in the frying pan and boy has it been a week of firsts. The longer I work in this new media space the more my eyes are opened to the possibilities of this medium.

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Insider / Ohana Links:
E Text Book Popularity in Texas.
Webcam Lawsuits.
Holding 1-7 Keys to Net Security.
Gel Stops Tooth Decay?

The Geek’s Show Links:
Net Speed Nightmare
Preserve your Net Freedoms.
Steerable Solar Sail.
Android + Wallpaper = Powned
Space Junk Tracking.
UK Clears Google.
Comcast Billing Glitch.
More School Webcam Lawsuits.
Old Spice Sales Up!
Real Photoshop Madness of BP Images.
Pink Slips for Shuttle Workers.
Spacewalk at ISS!
Religion of Apple?
Anybots to Spy on You.
App Genome Project.
Internet Radio for your Stereo Rack.
ProMed Network on Roku.
iPhone calling home to Mama Bell.
15 Minutes now for YouTube Videos.
Monitor your Elderly Parents.
IE9 in September.
Magic Trackpad I don’t get it.
Mozilla Tab Candy.
iOS4 for iPhone Performance.
Hacking an ATM.
Kindle for $139.00
Corporations Biggest Threat to Net Neutrality.
T-Mobile tops in Customer Service.
Home Server versus Cloud.
5 great iPad Apps.
Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 11.
More Toyota Recalls.
Your Facebook data Compiled?

Send in your stories to geeknews@gmail.com and be sure to provide a link to your websites!

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Tags: Apple, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, hacking, hawaii, iss, Net Neturality, Podcast, Roku, Security, Software, T-Mobile

Posted in Podcast

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Hot-Linking

Posted by susabelle at 6:58 AM on July 29, 2010

Remember back in the day, when you’d find some cool picture on the ‘net, and you’d copy it’s URL and paste it in some website you ran, and then the person at the hosting site would get all mad and tell you to take it down and “no hot-linking!” Remember that?

I learned early on that if I wanted an image, I needed to steal it fair and square, plop it onto my own server space, and then post its img src in my web page. That’s how it was done, and anyone who didn’t want to get yelled at did that.

Then along came Facebook. Suddenly, hot-linking became the norm. We hot-link to articles, youtube videos, funny pictures, you name it. I do it all the time on my Facebook page. I don’t do it on my blogs or on my web site, but when it comes to Facebook, I never think twice about posting a hot-link to a picture or video.

And it occurred to me the other day, that I’ve not been yelled at or seen anyone mention hot-linking in several years. Is it that bandwidth and data transfer is so cheap, and our server space is so cheap, that hot-linking doesn’t really matter anymore? Or is hot-linking done so much these days that there’s no real way to stop it?

Any thoughts?

Posted in Opinion

Comments 1 Comment

Google WiFi – Wrong But No Big Deal

Posted by Andrew at 6:51 AM on July 29, 2010

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a press release on Google’s collection of WiFi data that was obtained by the StreetView cars as they drove round.

In what appears to be a holding statement, the ICO says that it has reviewed samples of collected data at Google premises and confirms that the samples do not include any “meaningful personal details“. Additionally, the information cannot be connected to an identified individual and it is unlikely to cause any harm.

However, the ICO confirms that collecting the information was wrong but there is nothing further in the press release to indicate if any penalties will be levied against Google. Apparently the Information Commissioner will be taking a “responsible and proportionate approach.”

Tags: data protection, google, Privacy, streetview, uk

Posted in Legal, Privacy, google, wifi

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What Breaking Electronic Locks Means to the Blind

Posted by susabelle at 6:46 AM on July 29, 2010

The Library of Congress, in a regular review of digital copyright laws, made a few adjustments last week. They declared that jailbreaking a device is perfectly legal, that breaking code on games is okay for certain purposes (to fix bugs, for example), and that blind users have the right to break DRM in order to make electronic text available.

This last thing is a source of much rejoicing and discussion in the disability services community. This very thing has been a huge roadblock for users of electronic devices, or eBooks of any kind. Most eBooks, or eTexts, arrive in an inaccessible format such as ePub or PDF. Most of the time, other software has to be brought in to extract the text from these eBook formats, so that the print impaired can use the text at all. Having a legal right to do it removes some of the legal cautions that have been raised over the years when eText is manipulated to make it accessible.

Of course, in an ideal world, eText of all kinds would be accessible, but publishers cannot figure out how to do this without giving up their draconian DRM methods. They are so worried that we will share what we get, putting them out of business. Which, of course, has been proven to be a non-issue in the music industry (despite the fact that the RIAA still thinks it’s an issue). And while I don’t mind taking DRM-locked files and making them accessible for my print-disabled students, the fact remains that there should not have to be a middle-man like me doing this. If a student wants to go online and purchase an eBook to use immediately, just like anyone else, why shouldn’t they be able to?

At least now we know we won’t be sued or arrested for breaking DRM on these files. That could open up a lot more doors for the disabled in the future, as they will no longer feel like they are breaking the law when they convert a DRM’d file into something they can actually use.

Tags: Library of Congress

Posted in drm, fair

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ProMed Network Programs Available on Roku

Posted by geeknews at 1:47 AM on July 29, 2010

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) July 29, 2010

ProMed Network shows are now available and easily accessible on the over-the-top box Roku, helping consumers and health care professionals find the latest and most comprehensive medical information directly on their televisions.

ProMed is a digital media destination on which medical and health programming producers share their shows with other medical professionals, students in the health care fields and members of the public interested in health-related programming. With Roku, ProMed enables health and wellness audiences to broaden their consumption options and content owners and publishers to reach a large and growing audience of digital media consumers.

“The members of the ProMed Network are very excited to expand our reach to the Roku platform,” said Jamie Davis, ProMed general manager. “We believe the future of web programming is in the living rooms and family entertainment areas of our viewers. ProMed plans to be there to share our knowledge with the world.”

ProMed was launched with 11 programs nearly two years ago and has expanded to 30 programs. Several other shows are expected to be added throughout the next few months. Topics include nursing, emergency medicine, primary care, pediatrics, psychology, neurology and disease and disaster awareness. Each show listed in the community is either produced by a medical professional or has been determined to represent peer reviewed or medically relevant information.

“Our producers are among the most popular shows in their categories in directories such as iTunes and we often have nine or 10 shows in the top 20 medical programs listed,” Davis said. “Clearly our listeners and viewers continue to come back for more. The programs on the network really do represent the best of the best.”

ProMed, powered by the RawVoice Generator platform, joins the Tech Podcasts Network and Blubrry podcast communities in providing content creators the ability to be seen and heard on television. The digital media communities are properties of RawVoice, a base for media sharing, discovery, publishing, hosting, measurement and monetization for a vast group of content creators and networks.

RawVoice delivers mass content through multiple platforms; the RawVoice media statistics system offers unsurpassed insights into user consumption: tracking audiences, listener-base demographics and geographical data with worldwide mapping – all delivered via web-based interfaces, custom reports and daily e-mail summaries.

Contact Davis at press@promednetwork.com.

About RawVoice Inc.:
RawVoice offers new media producers an easy, efficient means to get media online and measure audience behavior. The RawVoice Generator is a configurable, customizable, user-friendly media platform that combines the power of podcasting and new media with social networking. The RawVoice Generator lets you push content to portable and home media devices, such as iPhones, Roku and Boxee. RawVoice’s Integrated New Media Statistics analyzes downloadable and streaming media. It’s easy to use, powerful and flexible.

Brands:
RawVoice Generator, RawVoice Media Statistics, PowerPress Podcast Plugin, TechPodcasts.com, Blubrry.com, TravelCastNetwork.com, ProMedNetwork.com, Podcasternews.com

Tags: New Media, podcasting, Roku

Posted in Information, New Media, podcasting

Comments 1 Comment

Hotel Suite for Aviation Buffs or “Lost” Fans

Posted by Andrew at 3:25 PM on July 28, 2010

If you are an aviation buff or a “Lost” fan, then this is the hotel suite for you. It’s Boeing 727 perched in a tree in the tropical oasis that is Hotel Costa Verde in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rico. Seriously – check out the pictures if you don’t believe me.

According to the blurb, the 1965-era plane was rescued from a graveyard in San Jose, taken apart and then shipped to Costa Rico on five trucks before being re-assembled in the treetops.

At $500 per night, doesn’t seem too outrageous for a two bedroom suite (assuming that’s the price for the suite and not per person.) There are more pictures on the hotel’s website.

Tags: 727, airplane, Boeing, Costa Rica, hotel, vacation

Posted in Weirdness

Comments 1 Comment

Hawaii Internet Slow Down could last a Month or More!

Posted by geeknews at 12:57 AM on July 28, 2010

Late last night a Fiber Optic cable between two islands was cut here in Hawaii that is causing massive disruption for users of Time Warner Road Runner Internet service. Road Runner did not have in place any redundant back haul, and customers statewide were without Internet service for many hours. When the service did come back on-line it is throttled to speeds that rival dial up days as you can see by the speed test I ran.

A very informed GNC reader told me tonight that they are in mass panic, because they are going to be hard pressed to keep services online at a level of service that customers demand and it could be a month or more before the fiber is fixed and service is fully restored to a level that is considered acceptable. He recommended I call other providers immediately, as their is going to a run on other service providers to get connected to something that resembles something other than dial up speeds.

The first question I am asking is how come Oceanic / Road Runner did not have a backup plan. If a single fiber optic line being damaged was enough to bring down the states internet infrastructure there is some gross negligence by Road Runner management here in Hawaii in my opinion, and someone should be held to account for this lack of basic planning.

This should not come as a surprise because basic bandwidth speeds have not increased here significantly in many years. We have waited and waited for promised increased speeds and it has never happened. This incident makes it very obvious that they do not have the infrastructure in place to handle increased speeds. If one fiber cable is damaged resulting in this massive decrease in available service it is obvious that they have not been investing in infrastructure . This should be a wake up call to Oceanic.

Wait times to talk to customer service representatives were endless. While the cutting of a Fiber optic line is bad, they should have realized we live in Hawaii and our nearest neighbor is 2500 miles away. This slow down is going to cost Hawaii business owners literally 100′s of thousands of dollars.

I encourage Hawaii Road Runner customers to keep the heat on Oceanic / Time Warner. I do not feel sorry for them, they should have considered this as a possibility before, and had the back haul in place to keep us connected at acceptable speeds.

Tags: Fiber, hawaii, Oceanic, Road Runner, telephone, TV

Posted in Crime

6 Comments

One month with iOS 4

Posted by Nolan at 12:10 AM on July 28, 2010

It has been one month using the iOS 4 on my iPhone 3GS. Without going back to the feature list again I wanted to list the features that have stuck in my brain and that I use.

Wallpaper – I love being able to change the appearance.
Folders - A great way to organize so many apps. At first I arranged all my apps into folders leaving only the home page with content. For me that meant about six folders and and 6 apps to see on opening. I didn’t like at the aesthetic appearance of the folder icons compared to a normal app. Why not allow some custom icons for folders? Secondly, folders didn’t save me much time as the taps and swipes were about equal. Then I read a blog post at MacSparky.com about the home screen of Jeff Gamet. He put his favorite apps on the front page and then the folders on the second. It took me a week or so, but now I love it. My home page is clean and sharp containing the apps I use for 85% of my interaction. The folders are wonderful on the second page for everything else. Now just to memorize my own filing system.
Background tasks – Love them, and will even more when a few of my apps update to include it. Really nice.
Quick switching – Overall this is a fail for me. The positive? I like the increased ability of the apps to remember where they were at before I stopped. The negative? Because of my home page layout it didn’t save me any touch interaction. Follow me for a moment. I am in Twitter and want to switch back to Facebook. I double click the home button and then touch on Facebook in the quick switch tray. That means three actions. Without quick switching I click the home button once and ince FB is on my home page the FB icon. Done in two. Additionally, if I have used the browser, email, and calculator since FB, when I double click for the quick switch tray FB isn’t there and I have to flick the quick swith tray to the next page before finding it. Done in 4 actions. My final complaint about the quick switching is that it doesn’t automatically clean out the tray. Currently I have 9, yes 9, switch trays full. How is that supposed to be helpful and save time? To clean it out I have to take them out one by one. They should have an hourly clean out of that cache so that only the last 4 remain in the que.
Mail Unified Inbox: Finally and well done.
iBooks: Read my first book on it and overall prefer it to the Kindle app for reading. There are some negatives, but I will write an entire article on the comparison.
SMS App: Still missing bulk delete option. Drives me crazy that it is not easily available in the app. Why is there no sent or received folders to quickly find messages? The conversation thread for each person is great, but I still struggle finding a certain messages.
Stability: I have about 2 or 3 crashes a day. By crash I mean I will be writing a text or browsing a page and then suddenly I am back at the home screen. Poof. Just like that. Safari is the worst. It seems to not update it’s cache properly as well. For example, I am on a news site and then browse to an article. When I hit the back button to return it will often give me the home page from a day or two prior. Really weird. Never had that with the previous iOS. The problem began immediately upon upgrading before any new apps were added. Right now it is an annoyance but if the update doesn’t fix it, I may get really annoyed. On iOS 3 I did have a weird display issue with the app icons on occasion and that hasn’t happened with the upgrade.

That is about all that comes to mind, and as this is supposed to be my initial observations, I will stop. Overall, I love the iOS 4 even with it’s glitches. Using my wife’s 1st generation Touch is painful now in so many ways. There are so many improvements to the iOS I know, these are just the main visible things that come from the mind of an average user. There is definite room for improvement even before the developers start taking full creative advantage of all the new API’s and features. It seems that Apple had some uncharacteristic upgrade problems with their OS and Phones this year.