Editorials | Gear Diary

Editorials, Music Diary January 28, 2012

Splash.FM Seeks to Ease Social Music Discovery, and My Hands-On Experience with the Beta

Music Discovery is hard stuff. Take this example: I just discovered that Kenny Burrell, a legendary guitarist that I love, recently released a solo guitar album so grabbed it immediately. Then I realize it has already been out for three months! I scan blogs, track release charts and so on … and this one slipped by! I chastised Twitter for keeping me in the dark! But once I had discovered the release, I quickly tried to disseminate that knowledge so that everyone who trusts me for music recommendations can grab this gorgeous album. And that premise – that the best…

Editorials, Travel January 26, 2012

Alaska Airlines, Your Mega-Church in the Sky

A few years ago I was on a plane that almost went down. The person next to me had spent the flight trying to convince me why I was wrong in my “choice” of religions, and when the wingtip almost hit the ground he looked at me and with all seriousness said, “At least I know where I’m going when I crash.” Some might have found his comment and attitude offensive. Others might have nodded in agreement. I saw it as proof of what is strong about this country. This is America, and he is entitled to his beliefs; my…

Editorials, How to Do It Yourself! January 26, 2012

Replacing the Fan: How My MacBook Pro Avoided the Trash, Part 3

In part 2 of this series, I took the fan out of my 13″ MacBook Pro, cleaned it and lightly lubricated it. For about a day, the fan noise was almost non-existent and the heating issue was mildly approved. Unfortunately, the noise quickly returned along with the hot CPU. This problem had to be fixed one way or another or I was going to have to throw the computer out of the window since it had become painfully slow and buggy. The next plan was to buy a new fan and replace the loud, failing original. I also decided to…

Editorials January 25, 2012

Apple’s Amazing Quarter Makes the iPhone Bigger Than ALL of Android!

It was only a few weeks ago when I posted the news that Android and iOS were in a virtual tie for market share of the smartphone market based on recent data, I said that ‘everyone wins’. I still believe that – I think that having strong competition in any market makes everyone work harder … and the results are better products for us as consumers! Last week Nielson put out estimates of smartphone market share for the fourth quarter of 2011, showing that iOS had significantly closed the gap with Android for recent months. Now, after the final tally…

Editorials January 25, 2012

Google Says ‘We Do What We Must Because We Can’

The title is a Portal reference … if you haven’t played, you should. I’ll provide a video at the end for context. The basic theme is that Aperture Science (Google) does what it ‘must’ (cruel human experimentation in the name of science) because it ‘can’ (no one can stop them). But also realize that it is presented humorously in-game, and I don’t intent it seriously here. Today we learn that Google is going to be combining all of the login and account data across every service we access with the same credentials. Yawn, right? Well, not exactly Orwellian, but not…

Editorials January 24, 2012

What Would It Take to Make iPhones in The United States?

The title of this post was a question posed by President Barack Obama to Steve Jobs nearly a year ago at a dinner attended by the tech glitterati. Mr. Jobs reportedly responded succinctly: “Those jobs aren’t coming back.” In Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher’s New York Times article “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work” , the content makes for an absorbing read. Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured…

Editorials January 23, 2012

‘Locker’ Sites Suspend Sharing After MegaUpload Takedown … Could DropBox Be Next?

This weekend, one of the biggest file-sharing sites on the internet – MegaUpload was shut down, its’ top officers arrested and its assets seized. Numerous articles that go into detail everywhere. Here is a snippet from Ars Technica: The indictment charges that the “Mega conspiracy” has for more than five years operated websites that willfully distributed pirated movies, often before their theatrical release, and other illegal copies of copyrighted works, earning the company over $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue. Megaupload is also charged with money laundering by paying uploaders through an “uploader reward program,” and paying other companies to…

eBooks, Editorials January 23, 2012

Has Apple Jumped the Shark with iBooks Author?

Image courtesy of Carrypad I’m a huge fan of eBooks. I’ve been reading them since the Peanut Press days, I have gone on at length about the strengths and weaknesses that I’ve found in the various software eBook readers currently available, and I’ve reviewed a number of “enhanced books” right here for y’all. I haven’t read more than one or two hardcopy books per year in the last several years. I love eBooks. I think Apple’s iBooks app is pretty decent, all things considered. As I ranted on at length about, I think there’s a lot of things to be modified,…

eBooks, Editorials January 20, 2012

Has iBooks 2 Cracked the Textbook Puzzle?

After Apple’s big iBooks 2 announcement, I went hunting for more info on prior digital textbooks; it occurred to me that most of the pilot programs and digital textbook stuff are aimed at college level students and up, with the most famous/infamous being Amazon’s Kindle DX experiment with several universities. This makes sense since college kids foot their own bill for hardware. So why is Apple targeting high schools? Did no one point out that schools are so poor they are firing teachers left and right? A class of 500 freshmen starting high school would cost a district $250,000 before…

Editorials January 19, 2012

Apple and iBooks 2 – It’s the Strategy Stupid

I was scratching my head this morning after the announcement of iBooks 2 and Apple’s major play into the textbook arena. It struck me that they were already going in this direction and, as a result, this was an expected evolutionary step forward, not something worthy of an announcement. Having thought about it a bit more, however, I think there is actually a bigger story here. I’ll leave it to Carly to address the actual textbook aspect of this and instead, look at what is really the bigger picture that is key to today’s Apple announcement. You see, this isn’t…

eBooks, Editorials January 18, 2012

If an eBookstore Falls in the Internet and No One Hears It…

eBooknewser reported today that Amazon quietly shut down Mobipocket, an ebook store that those of us with PDA roots probably remember fondly. Amazon purchased Mobipocket and still uses their format as the basis for Kindle books. After reading the post, I headed over to Mobipocket and found what appears to be the internet equivalent of a broken, abandoned storefront. There’s no announcement that Mobipocket is gone, but the files appear to have all disappeared. Bestsellers, fiction, non-fiction, everything is just gone, with the exception of a handful of classics that appear on the main page. Meanwhile, things aren’t exactly hopping…

Editorials, Game Diary January 17, 2012

Mass Effect 3: All Origin, No Steam, Mum on ‘Origin Spyware’ Claims

Well, now I guess I will have to wait until Mass Effect 3 eventually lands on Steam or is a bargain title, because I am SURELY not buying it based on what I am reading on the Bioware ‘social’ forums. Here is a snip: 1) Will Origin be a requirement to play all versions of Mass Effect 3? (Digital and/or from a retail brick and mortar store) Yes, Origin is required for all PC editions of Mass Effect 3, physical or digital. 2) Is constant Origin connection required or is it a single one off authentication when the game is…

eBooks, Editorials January 16, 2012

Does Anyone Buy eBook Readers for the Hardware Anymore?

There’s an interesting (and honestly, inevitable) trend in the book world lately: no one’s talking hardware anymore. Yes, there’s new devices, and sales are touted when they’re impressive. But the big announcements that come up again and again are “ebook sales are increasing by these triple digits/these authors are making this much money through ebooks/we have this many free ebooks, etc”. Plus, all those lovely ebooks are available on tablets, computers, smartphones and dedicated ebook readers…so does it pay for a company to offer the hardware without the ebooks anymore? In my view, the answer is no, and I think…

Editorials, Events January 14, 2012

iOS, Android and Windows Phone – Where is the Market Headed? An Open Discussion

Judie and I both got HTC Titans the other day and have jumped into using them. Our initial thoughts? We both like them… a lot! We’ve been discussing a great deal of this behind the scenes. One discussion began with my posting So I really have to say that I am loving the hell out of the HTC Titan (even with its now slightly dented corners):-] I’m still learning how to get around but it is polished, tight, and a pleasure to use. Best onscreen keyboard ever! No matter how good the hardware o do t think I would like an Android…

Editorials January 12, 2012

Should Google Be Limited In HOW They Evolve Search?

I have been thinking quite a bit about HOW to address all of the ‘stuff’ flying around about Google, Google +, ‘search your world’, Twitter, Facebook, and a partridge in a pear tree … because in some ways things seem very clear but in other ways not. So what I decided was to drop a couple of ideas and then open it up for everyone to discuss. First off, let us start with the baseline assumptions. First: Google has a monopoly in search. Second: Google’s search monopoly is a ‘natural’ monopoly. (more in a minute) Third: Google sees search as…

Editorials January 10, 2012

When THIS Happens We ALL Win

If you search around the internet based on the images in this post you will find loads of prognostication – Android fans calling it meaningless (despite foretelling the death of iOS with each percentage Android gains at the expense of RIM), iOS fans calling it the ‘Android plummet’ (in spite of arguing that short term shifts are meaningless), and so on. What I see – particularly when I look at the next image – is a market that is moving more rapidly than ever before. Smartphones accounted for over TWO THIRDS of all mobile phone sales in October and November…

Editorials January 7, 2012

Warner Bros. Makes Netflix & Redbox Wait 56 Days; Will it Help DVD Sales?

Today AllThingsD is carrying a story that Warner Bros has announced a deal whereby they are further delaying delivery of new releases to Netflix and Redbox up to 56 days after release! The reasoning is simple: help bolster DVD sales. A new deal between Time Warner’s movie studio and Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster will double the “window” for new releases. That means the services will now have to wait 56 days after the discs first go on sale to offer them to their customers, instead of 28 days. However, I cannot help but wonder if this strategy is the definition…

Editorials January 5, 2012

Jogging Is Scarier Than Calorie Counting?!

If you’ve eaten in a major fast food chain (especially in New York), you are probably familiar with calorie counts being posted next to ads of Big Macs and greasy, delicious fries. The idea is to discourage you from wanting to eat too many high calorie/ high-fat foods. According to a research study done in Maryland, there’s a more effective way-threaten to make people run! They found teenagers turned away from soda MORE when they were told drinking it would require 50 minutes of jogging to burn the calories. What really made my jaw drop was their logic: Researchers monitored…

Editorials January 5, 2012

Android in 2011: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

You would think that with close to 50% of the smartphone world now using an Android phone, looking back at 2011 would be a uniformly positive experience. Yet it is not – in fact, it is easier for me to draw up a list of very negative things than an equally list of positives. Of course, some will say ‘that is because you hate Google and Samsung and Android and never say anything nice about them’. Am I critical? Certainly … but I believe I am just pointing out things too many folks gloss over – ironically the same folks…

Editorials December 30, 2011

Thank You For Calling Verizon Wireless, How May I Collect an Extra $2 (or not)?

Sorry about the Better Off Dead image, but when I saw this at Droid-Life yesterday that was all I could think of … Verizon Wireless as Johnny chasing Lane across the field and down the mountain in search of the $2 paper money. Here is the image more related to the new policy: According to the report from the AP: Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest cellphone company, said Thursday that it will start charging $2 for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit cards. The company said this “convenience fee” will be introduced Jan. 15….

Editorials, Game Diary December 30, 2011

You Just Bought a Brand-New Game Console–Time to Upgrade!

Image courtesy of PS4 Talk How it started, basically, is because I can’t keep my mouth shut when something bugs the crap out of me. I complain. And sometimes, when the topic is gear, I complain to Your Humble Gear Diary Team. So what’s the problem? Maybe you’ve noticed that when you buy a new game console or device (or even game), the first thing the system does, before you even create your character or run through all the “Welcome!” windows, is . . . check for updates and then “suggest” that you update the system. This happened to me…