"Is the Internet dividing our attention? Are we so buried in technology that we ignore one another? Nicolas [sic] Carr, author of “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” discusses the history and implications of the information age, from the mechanical clock to the iPhone."Our compulsive consumption of information - Salon.com
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Our compulsive consumption of information - Salon.com
A thought-provoking book survey and commentary from Nicholas Carr
Review: New iPad revolutionary in its subtlety of change - Chicago Sun-Times
Excerpts from an extensive Andy Ihnatko new iPad review
"The point of this thing is more clear. Its elements do their jobs better, more efficiently . . . and with a great deal more panache and style. The process of making the new iPad was one of examining every element and figuring out how to improve it in place."Review: New iPad revolutionary in its subtlety of change - Chicago Sun-Times:
[...]
"Honestly, don’t you feel a little sorry for the men and women at Google who are responsible for Android on tablets? They build an immense, and in many ways impressive, paper castle every year. And every year during March or April, Apple rides past and shoots a single flaming arrow into it without even stopping."
Busting 10 Myths about Hadoop -- TDWI -The Data Warehousing Institute
Check the link below for a timely Hadoop reality check
"Although Hadoop and related technologies have been with us for over five years now, most BI professionals and their business counterparts still harbor a few misconceptions that need to be corrected about Hadoop and related technologies such as MapReduce. I hope that the following list of 10 facts will clarify what Hadoop is and does relative to BI, as well as in which business and technology situations Hadoop-based BI, data warehousing, and analytics can be useful."Busting 10 Myths about Hadoop -- TDWI -The Data Warehousing Institute
Microsoft targeting October 2012 for Windows 8 launch
Perhaps some significant end-of-year holiday tablet price discounts ahead
"According to a report from Bloomberg earlier today, Microsoft plans to finish up all work on Windows 8 by summer 2012 and release the new version of the operating system during October 2012. The official announcement of the release date as well as other information on scheduling will occur during April 2012 at an event for industry partners. The October timing of the release will coincide with the holiday shopping season allowing Microsoft to package Windows 8 with laptops, desktops and tablets from third party manufacturer such as Dell, HP, Gateway, Sony, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo and Acer."Microsoft targeting October 2012 for Windows 8 launch
Oregon’s I-5 Now Electrified | Hybrid Cars
Oregon charges ahead
'via Blog this'
"Another step to answer electric vehicle range anxiety has been taken. As of Friday morning, the Oregon Department of Transportation has opened the first phase of the West Coast Electric Highway, which is anticipated to eventually stretch along Interstate 5 from the Canadian to Mexican borders. This opening was made in partnership with charging station partner AeroVironment and the Oregon Department of Energy.Oregon’s I-5 Now Electrified | Hybrid Cars
At this stage, the first eight links are operating in what will ultimately be a north-south chain of electric vehicle charging stations along I-5. "
'via Blog this'
Woz supports Mike Daisey's message and says you should too | Apple - CNET News
Woz supports Mike Daisey's message and says you should too | Apple - CNET News:
Think different -- also see Lying Apple Gadfly Mike Daisey Still Doesn’t Get It (AllThingsD)
Think different -- also see Lying Apple Gadfly Mike Daisey Still Doesn’t Get It (AllThingsD)
"Apple co-founder says he loved Daisey's show and believes media misunderstands the actor and Apple critic. He credits Daisey with helping to prod Apple into improving working conditions in China."'via Blog this'
Many Sites Chart a New Course as Google Expands Fees - NYTimes.com
Many Sites Chart a New Course as Google Expands Fees - NYTimes.com:
From a snapshot of another market segment in which Google is under attack
'via Blog this'
From a snapshot of another market segment in which Google is under attack
"In the seven years since it was introduced, Google’s offering of street maps, satellite photos and street-level views has become the dominant player in the world of online mapping, displacing earlier entrants like AOL’s MapQuest. According to comScore, 71 percent of the 91.7 million people in the United States who looked at maps online in February used Google Maps.
There are signs, however, that Google’s dominance is under assault — and the company’s own moves may have something to do with this."
'via Blog this'
AHEAD OF THE TAPE: 'Ex' Factors to Strengthen Oracle's Results - WSJ.com
AHEAD OF THE TAPE: 'Ex' Factors to Strengthen Oracle's Results - WSJ.com:
A big day for Mark Hurd and Oracle shareholders
'via Blog this'
A big day for Mark Hurd and Oracle shareholders
"The earnings miss in December caused Oracle to sit out the broad equity and technology rally. Since the beginning of October, its shares have risen just 3.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite rallied 27%. If its not-so-new president convinces markets that its sales woes are fixed, much of the gap could be closed in short-order. Never underestimate Wall Street's Hurd instinct."
'via Blog this'
Monday, March 19, 2012
Apple - Press Info - New iPad Tops Three Million
Apple - Press Info - New iPad Tops Three Million:
Not a bad first weekend
'via Blog this'
Not a bad first weekend
"CUPERTINO, California―March 19, 2012―Apple® today announced it has sold three million of its incredible new iPad®, since its launch on Friday, March 16. The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G supports ultrafast 4G LTE networks in the US and Canada, and fast networks around the world including those based on HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.**
“The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday.”"
'via Blog this'
XML Aficionado: The Emperor's New Clothes - a "New iPad" Review in a "Post-PC World"
Final paragraphs of a timely and detailed post-PC/PC-plus reality check from Alexander Falk
Summary and Clarification
Just to clarify, I really enjoy using iPads, and continue to believe they are great media consumption devices. I love to read books on them. I love to read magazines and newspapers on them. I even watch the occasional movie or play a game. And for all these purposes, the improved screen resolution of the new iPad as well as the 4G LTE network capabilities are fabulous improvements.
But for any expression of creativity, for software development, for photography, for cinematography, for journalism, blogging, marketing, science, engineering, architecture, … in other words for any serious work … tablets are somewhere between mediocre to useless. For all of these fields the PC - be it Windows, MacOS, or Linux based - has been and will be the essential tool of any creative mind. Therefore, I firmly resent the hubris of people proclaiming this to be a "post-PC world".
XML Aficionado: The Emperor's New Clothes - a "New iPad" Review in a "Post-PC World"
Newspapers take it on the chin as online ad revenue falls into the hands of a few tech giants - GeekWire
Also see Media Culture Shifts: theory vs. reality
Americans are spending more time consuming news, using devices such as smartphones and tablets to track events on the go. But even as news consumption rises, the traditional media companies that have produced the news aren’t necessarily benefitting.
The 2012 State of the News Media report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that five technology companies — Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Facebook — now account for 68 percent of all online ad revenue.
The report notes that these technology “intermediaries” are increasingly controlling the future of news.
Business & Technology | Groupon launching appointment scheduling tool | Seattle Times Newspaper
Groupon provides a new service to help individuals and organizations manage all the stuff they buy/sell on Groupon
The tool is based on technology from a Canadian company it bought last fall, OpenCal.
Groupon users will be able to book appointments when they buy a Groupon, or wait till later. They can also change or cancel appointments online. Users can also continue to schedule with the merchant directly.
The tool will let merchants track their customers, including what other appointments they have made and how much they spend during each visit.
Business & Technology | Groupon launching appointment scheduling tool | Seattle Times Newspaper
What's Coming in Microsoft OneNote 15 [Supersite for Windows]
Final paragraph of a Paul Thurrott preview
There's more, but as always, this is just a quick look at those improvements that stand out to me. OneNote 15 isn't as big a leap as, say, Word 15, but then this excellent note-taking solution was already an excellent solution in the 2010 version. I like that the cloud sync functionality is more automatic and seamless, and this alone puts it over the top.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Cisco's Bold Networking Start-Up - NYTimes.com
Apparently Cisco now subscribes to the view (attributed to Edwin Land) that “Someone is going to make your product obsolete. Make sure it's you.”
In a recent call with journalists, John Chambers, Cisco’s chief executive, said the company had “reinvented” itself and was now a big believer in software-defined networking. Insiemi could be a networking product that would bridge the custom and commodity worlds for Cisco.
[…]
Insiemi could be one of the great face-offs in enterprise computing. Two of Arista’s founders, Andreas von Bechtolsheim and David Cheriton, sold an earlier company to Cisco. They are also both billionaires, thanks to early investments in Google. Arista’s chief executive, Jayshree Ullal, is a former chief engineering director at Cisco. The three Cisco engineers involved in Insiemi, Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain, and Luca Cafiero, are also wealthy, thanks to their work inside companies they led, which were hatched inside Cisco, financed largely by Cisco and then purchased by Cisco.
In Praise of Apple's iPad (the First One) - Businessweek
It would be fascinating to see how the original iPad evolved during the couple years when it was sidelined while Apple went to market with the iPhone first
On this, the momentous debut day of Apple’s new iPad, it’s time to reflect on another tablet that hit the market two years ago and, in some respects, is just as flashy and functional as the new ballyhooed version. It’s got the same size screen, about the same 1.5 lb. weight, runs the same operating system, and the same apps. It has no camera, and its processor is a little pokier, but really, if we’re honest, it does most of what you want in a tablet—and does it well. I’m talking of course about the original iPad.
The first iPad embodies something rare in technology gadgets: a pioneering product that got it pretty much right.
The personalized web is just an interest graph away [GigaOM]
Check the full post for an interest graph market snapshot
Much as social graphs are maps of our social media connections that follow us across the web, interest graphs are maps of our interests. Some companies want them to follow us across the web, too, meaning that wherever we go, there we are. There’ll be no more need to search through news sites for the stories we want, or shopping sites for the products we want, because the site will know as soon as we hit its system who we are and what we like.
Whether you’re fascinated or appalled by the idea of interest graphs, here’s a taste of how they might work.
[…]
http://gigaom.com/cloud/the-personalized-web-is-just-an-interest-graph-away/
Google Apps VP Dave Girouard Leaving to Start a Company - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD
I look forward to seeing what he’ll be up to next; check the full article for Google org transition details
Dave Girouard, who is Google’s VP of apps, is leaving the company, Google said today.
Girouard had been responsible for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and other cloud applications.
After eight years at Google, Girouard plans to start his own company, though not in the enterprise space. Google Ventures will be investing in his start-up, alongside Kleiner Perkins and NEA.
Google Apps VP Dave Girouard Leaving to Start a Company - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD
The Encyclopedia Britannica was expensive, useless, and exploitative. I’m glad it’s gone. - Slate Magazine
I have happy memories of flipping through (Britannica and World Book) encyclopedias as a child, but I also agree with the perspectives in this Slate article
My advice is to make the wiser, cheaper choice, one that will prove more helpful to your kids in the long run: Pay nothing to Britannica and teach your young ones to use Google and Wikipedia. While there are many legitimate complaints to be leveled at Wikipedia (rarely, it gets things wrong; sometimes, its entries are vandalized), the free, crowdsourced encyclopedia is better than Britannica in every way. It’s cheaper, it’s bigger, it’s more accessible, it’s more inclusive of differing viewpoints and subjects beyond traditional academic scholarship, its entries tend to include more references, and it is more up to date.
Most importantly, learning to navigate Google and Wikipedia prepares you for the real world, while learning to use Britannica teaches you nothing beyond whatever subject you’re investigating at the moment.
CHART OF THE DAY: The Evolution Of How People Use iPads
See the full post for more charts; I’ve included the one I found most interesting below
Here is a series of charts we made from data by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster. Munster has been interviewing people in line for the iPad each year it was released. You can see the evolution of how people plan to use iPads.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Tablet computers: Difference engine: The empire strikes back | The Economist
“Ingenious,” as forced marches go – from an Economist Windows 8 tablet perspective
Could a similar fate be in store for Microsoft’s latest ARM affair? To have any chance of succeeding with a Windows tablet, Microsoft has to persuade its huge army of third-party developers to create applications for WOA. Under normal circumstances, few would bother.
Microsoft’s answer is ingenious. The company has designed WOA so that not only is it unable to run existing Windows programs, but it also cannot use a software emulator as a fudge for doing so. The only applications that will run on the ARM flavour of Windows 8 are programs written specifically to work with the new Metro interface that WOA shares with the desktop version of Windows 8. Any software developer wishing to write an application for the desktop version will therefore automatically produce code for an ARM version as well.
Tablet computers: Difference engine: The empire strikes back | The Economist
'This American Life' Retracts Mike Daisey’s Apple Exposé [Slate]
This is likely to become an information responsibility milestone (and to keep many Apple lawyers gainfully employed for a while)
In a surprising turn of events, This American Life announced this afternoon that it is retracting its exposé of the working conditions at Apple’s factories in China. The show will address the retraction in this week’s episode, in which they’ll devote an entire hour to the subject. The episode will go up tonight, a couple days earlier than most episodes, which are usually posted on Sunday. They explained the decision on the episode’s page:
Regrettably, we have discovered that one of our most popular episodes was partially fabricated. This week, we devote the entire hour to detailing the errors in "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory," Mike Daisey’s story about visiting Foxconn, an Apple supplier factory in China. Rob Schmitz, a reporter for Marketplace, raises doubts on much of Daisey's story . . . Ira also talks with Mike Daisey about why he misled This American Life during the fact-checking process. And we end the show separating fact from fiction, when it comes to Apple's manufacturing practices in China.
Pinterest addresses copyright concerns - The Washington Post
A lot like YouTube for images (and other multimedia), but without Google’s resources (and legal department) behind it
In a statement, the company said that it believes that it is protected under the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and that it is committed to quickly responding to alleged copyright issues. Other companies, such as YouTube, adopt a similar strategy on content posted to their Web sites.
Pinterest also said that the feedback from content creators has been largely positive — not litigious — because Pinterest drives traffic back to other Web sites.
Pinterest addresses copyright concerns - The Washington Post
The Blog Post That Drove Rush Limbaugh to Tweet - Yahoo! News [Atlantic Wire]
Likely to become a case study in putting out fire with gasoline
While it's not surprising that Limbaugh would want to drive readers to Jacobson's post, it is odd that he was so excited to drive them there that he embraced an entirely new platform of communication to do so! It makes it look like he knows he's under fire, and he's looking for new ways to combat his opponents by entering the fast-paced and often uncivil twitter-sphere
The Blog Post That Drove Rush Limbaugh to Tweet - Yahoo! News
Microsoft Office 15 Preview [Supersite for Windows]
Office 15 pays the Metro strategy tax; see the full review for more Office 15 details
After rebooting the tablet and signing in to Windows 8, I immediately scrolled to the end of the Start screen, knowing full well that Office had dumped some number of live tiles there. But even I was surprised by how many there were.
(Will Microsoft clean this up? I would bet so.)
Introducing PayPal Here: The Future of Commerce for Small Business
tbd if a triangle beats a Square
PayPal Here is the world’s first global mobile payment solution that allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment. It’s designed to help those merchants make more sales and grow their business with confidence. And it gives them choices. They can accept payments by swiping cards with a fully encrypted thumb-sized card reader, or use a phone camera to scan and process cards and checks. It also allows them to invoice directly from the mobile app and, of course, accept PayPal in a brand new way.
Introducing PayPal Here: The Future of Commerce for Small Business
Anarchy in the App Store - Businessweek
Caveat emptor; also see For Apple, Pressure Builds Over App Store Fraud (NYT)
But living up to those promises has become increasingly difficult as the App Store has expanded to include nearly 600,000 games, organizational tools, and other programs. Once criticized by app developers for long approval times and arbitrary rejections, Apple is now struggling with the opposite problem: letting through too many apps that violate the company’s own privacy rules or rip off trademarks. The company is also trying to swat down startups trying to manipulate the App Store, which has helped drive sales of more than 315 million iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. Apple declined to comment for this story.
[…]
Apple Shares Hit $600; $1 Trillion Market Cap Seems Less Outrageous - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD
Interesting times
A stunning rally. Apple’s stock is up about 47 percent for the year, and seems destined to continue its ascent. Analysts certainly seem to think so: Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley and Canaccord Genuity both lifted their price targets on AAPL to above $700.
At $600, Apple has about a $550 billion market cap. At $700, its market cap would be around $603 billion.
And at somewhere around $1,072? $1 trillion.
Which is certainly a long way off, but not implausible.
Galaxy Tab 7.7 an admirable also-ran - Business - The Boston Globe
If Amazon were to OEM this device, brand it Kindle Fire 2.0, and provide relatively inexpensive wide-area wireless (e.g., via Sprint or Clearwire), it’d be a very different tablet competitive landscape
By any standard, this is a marvelous device. It’s decisively the best minitablet I’ve tried. It’s razor-thin, sleek, and light, with a gorgeous touchscreen capable of true high-definition video.
But it’s not the new iPad from Apple Inc., which goes on sale Friday. Indeed, using the Tab reminded me why the iPad is the world’s dominant tablet computer, and probably will be for years to come.
Galaxy Tab 7.7 an admirable also-ran - Business - The Boston Globe
Microsoft Builds a Browser for Your Past - Technology Review
Timeline++
Lifebrowser's interactive timeline is reminiscent of a less polished version of Facebook's recently introduced Timeline feature. However, Horvitz's design precedes Facebook's and doesn't rely on a user to manually curate it. Photos, e-mails, and other documents and data points appear in chronological order, but Lifebrowser's timeline only shows those judged to be associated with "landmark" events by artificial intelligence algorithms. A user can slide a "volume control" to change how significant data has to be if it is to appear on the timeline. A search feature can pull up landmark events on a certain topic.
Microsoft Builds a Browser for Your Past - Technology Review
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Evernote for iOS Update: iPad Retina Display Support, Better Editing, Suggested Note Titles, and More « Evernote Blogcast
Check the full post for more Evernote for iOS updates
Anticipation of the new iPad has become a happy annual tradition at Evernote. Each time Apple gives fans something new and exciting to work with and this year is no exception. The faster processor, fantastic camera and beautiful display, all make for a better Evernote experience.
Our new iOS update (4.1.9) features a number of great features for both iPhone and iPad, and just in time for the new iPad, we bring you full Retina display support! Let’s take a closer look.
Get Evernote for iOS from the iTunes App Store »
Retina optimized
We’ve been hard at work upgrading all of our graphics and interfaces to look beautiful on the new tablet. Every aspect of Evernote is sharper, crisper and more vibrant. We can’t wait to get our hands on the new iPad to see it for ourselves.
I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Lessons from Redmond - Cringely on technology
From an Amazon embrace-and-extend perspective piece
The AWS-based business I have in mind today is DropBox, the incredibly successful data storage and synchronization service that runs on AWS. Amazon’s Kindle group in Cupertino is apparently readying their own DropBox clone. This makes sense for a couple reasons: 1) Amazon is already supplying (and being paid for) 90 percent of what we think of as DropBox, and; 2) the Kindle platform could use a better store-and-sync capability.
It’s sync that DropBox has right now and Kindle/Amazon does not, but how hard can it be to add that capability? Not very. And how hard is it to imagine expanding a Kindle-specific syncing service to supporting in the near future any Internet-connected device. It’s not hard at all.
I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Lessons from Redmond - Cringely on technology
Microsoft Pri0 | Android tablets gain market share, thanks to Kindle Fire | Seattle Times Newspaper
From a tablet market share snapshot
Though Apple's iPad shipments grew in the fourth quarter of 2011 -- to 15.4 million versus 11.1 million in the third quarter -- it nonetheless lost market share. In the fourth quarter, it held 54.7 percent of the worldwide market, down from 61.5 percent in the third quarter.
Amazon shipped 4.7 million Kindle Fires in 2011, enough to boost the company into second place behind Apple with 16.8 percent of the worldwide market.
[…] Here's IDC's chart:
Microsoft Pri0 | Android tablets gain market share, thanks to Kindle Fire | Seattle Times Newspaper
A Turing Award for Helping Make Computers Smarter - NYTimes.com
Excerpt from an overview of the latest Turing Award winner’s work
In the 1970s and 1980s, the dominant approach to artificial intelligence was to try to capture the process of human judgment in rules a computer could use. They were called rules-based expert systems.
Dr. Pearl championed a different approach of letting computers calculate probable outcomes and answers. It helped shift the pursuit of artificial intelligence onto more favorable terrain for computing.
“It allowed us to learn from the data rather than write down rules of logic,” said Peter Norvig, an artificial intelligence expert and research director at Google. “It really opened things up.”
A Turing Award for Helping Make Computers Smarter - NYTimes.com
The Pointless Debate Over Web Curation vs. Aggregation–Businessweek [GigaOM]
A curation counterpoint
We already have a tool for providing credit to the original source: It’s called the hyperlink. Plenty of people don’t use hyperlinks as much as they should (including mainstream media sources such as the New York Times, although Executive Editor Jill Abramson said at SXSW that this is going to change), while others misuse and abuse them. Used properly, they serve the purpose of providing credit quite well. How to use them properly—especially for journalistic purposes—is a can of worms, as Felix Salmon of Reuters and others have noted. And when it comes to curation vs. aggregation, it seems as though curation is what people call it when they like the process; aggregation is what they call it when they don’t.
The Pointless Debate Over Web Curation vs. Aggregation - Businessweek
Google Gives Search a Refresh - WSJ.com
Concluding paragraphs of an article about Google’s impending semantic shift; also see WSJ Says Big Google Search Changes Coming? Reality Check Time! (Search Engine Land)
But the newest change is expected to go much further, coming as a result of Google's acquisition in 2010 start-up Metaweb Technologies, which had an index of 12 million entities, such as movies, books, companies and celebrities. By comparison, online encyclopedia Wikipedia has 3.5 million English entries, though they include more detailed information.
Mr. Singhal said Google and the Metaweb team, which then numbered around 50 software engineers, have since expanded the size of the index to more than 200 million entities, partly by developing "extraction algorithms," or mathematical formulas that can organize data scattered across the Web. It also approached organizations and government agencies to obtain access to databases, including the CIA World Factbook, which houses up-to-date encyclopedic information about countries worldwide.
The New iPad Is Much the Same, Only Better - NYTimes.com
… and, like the iPhone 4S, the new iPad is likely to set new sales records, even if it disappoints reviewers who were expecting miracles
Really, the new iPad should have been called the iPad 2S. In the past, Apple added the letter S to iPhone models that weren’t exactly new but had been tastefully enhanced (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S). That’s exactly what’s going on with the new iPad. Its technical improvements keep it at the forefront of desirability — just ahead of the snapping jaws of its Android competition — but don’t take it in any new directions.
New iPad: A Million More Pixels Than HDTV - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD
Walt Mossberg on the new iPad
There are other changes in the new, third-generation iPad — called simply “iPad,” with no number, which goes on sale on Friday at the same base price as its predecessor, $499. But the key upgrades are to those core features — the 9.7-inch screen and the data speed over cellular networks. These upgrades are massive. Using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription — you suddenly realize what you thought looked sharp before wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could be.
New iPad: A Million More Pixels Than HDTV - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD
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