Proview, the Chinese company suing Apple over the iPad name used to sell an all-in-one computer . On tech site "The Verge", there is an ad from the company about their "IPAD" computer. It looks remarkably like the original G3 iMac. You know, the computer that looked like a little TV, in multiple colors.
They claim that they spent $30 million on R/D before releasing this in 2000. Yeah right. The iMac came out in 1998. Are you telling me they didn't just rip off the design from Apple?
This is disingenuous. The company failed with theirs because they only sold 20,000 in 8 years, & I never heard of the thing until recently. The difference was that the IPAD ran Linux & had a 256 MHZ processor. That's almost the same specs as the Bondi Blue iMac I had a few years ago. It had a 266 MHZ processor. Good when it came out, terrible a few years ago, because of how big websites are now. So now these clowns who ripped off Apple with a copycat iMac, want to sue Apple over the iPad. This is simply an attempt to get money they are not entitled to. The Chinese government will look at how many people work for Apple in Shenzen & other cities, & how much they make off the company & maybe this company (which is on the verge of bankruptcy) will disappear.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
San Jose To Provide Free WiFi?
An article in the free Metro paper says that San Jose has plans for a free WiFi service downtown. Meanwhile 20 miles up the freeway, Mountain View has a state of the art free service courtesy of Google, which has it's headquarters there.
The system will be built by SmartWAVE of Suwanee, GA, which built a WiFi network in Austin, TX, a major tech center with it's SXSW show. Ruckus Wireless of Sunnyvale will provide the equipment. They supplied Seoul, Korea with their system. So this sounds plausible.
The deal is supposedly being negotiated. My question is, if this is in the works, why did I have to read about it in a free paper that I picked up at Quiznos, rather than in the San Jose Mercury News? And how come it took this many years to do it?
Lots of businesses have free WiFi. Starbucks, the city libraries, my local mall (Oakridge). But available over the city's core? No. Of course, let's point out that it's probably not a good idea to do sensitive, company work on your lunch break at McDonald's, although I always see at least one person doing exactly that. Still, this is something that should be done. I'm just not holding my breath.
The system will be built by SmartWAVE of Suwanee, GA, which built a WiFi network in Austin, TX, a major tech center with it's SXSW show. Ruckus Wireless of Sunnyvale will provide the equipment. They supplied Seoul, Korea with their system. So this sounds plausible.
The deal is supposedly being negotiated. My question is, if this is in the works, why did I have to read about it in a free paper that I picked up at Quiznos, rather than in the San Jose Mercury News? And how come it took this many years to do it?
Lots of businesses have free WiFi. Starbucks, the city libraries, my local mall (Oakridge). But available over the city's core? No. Of course, let's point out that it's probably not a good idea to do sensitive, company work on your lunch break at McDonald's, although I always see at least one person doing exactly that. Still, this is something that should be done. I'm just not holding my breath.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Firefox To Have Separate Browser for Metro
Mozilla has announced that it intends to develop a special browser for the Metro interface on Windows 8. Not sure how this will work. Will Microsoft actually make it available so development can be done, or will they try to insure that only IE will be usable on the new OS?
Remember, Metro is going to be designed to be a touch screen interface. So one can see where Microsoft will try to do what Apple did with the iPad, & only allow their own browser. Of course, this could possibly cause the European Union to get involved like they did with Windows 7. But why then didn't they go after Apple? Yes, the iMac supports Firefox & Chrome, but the iPad has a much larger inprint as far as sales, & the EU did nothing to them.
Mozilla needs to do something. Their market share has stagnated at around 20-25%. Chrome will pass Firefox within a year if it hasn't already. This despite the fox still being superior as far as extensions & memory usage.
Remember, Metro is going to be designed to be a touch screen interface. So one can see where Microsoft will try to do what Apple did with the iPad, & only allow their own browser. Of course, this could possibly cause the European Union to get involved like they did with Windows 7. But why then didn't they go after Apple? Yes, the iMac supports Firefox & Chrome, but the iPad has a much larger inprint as far as sales, & the EU did nothing to them.
Mozilla needs to do something. Their market share has stagnated at around 20-25%. Chrome will pass Firefox within a year if it hasn't already. This despite the fox still being superior as far as extensions & memory usage.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Netflix Streams Lillyhammer
In an attempt to compete with television, Netflix has released to streaming an original production. It's called Lillyhammer & was filmed in Norway.
The show is a humorous look at a gangster played by Steven Van Zandt who turns against an enemy & goes into witness protection in Lillehamer, Norway. At current it is only being streamed, with DVD's to come later. There are 8 45 minute episodes, all available on Netflix.
The show is a "fish out of water" comedy, with the majority of the cast being Norwegian actors speaking the language with subtitles. It flows quite well & kept my interest throughout. It's original & as one reviewer said is a cross between The Sopranos & Fargo.
Now comes the question. Is this the future of programming? Can Netflix & Hulu (which also has an original production coming) compete with the networks & cable? Is the audience going to be big enough to make this a profitable or at least a break even idea? I'm sure the media outlets will be looking to see what happens. If enough people watch this show, it is conceivable that this could become a new business model. The networks won't go away, but doing it this way means an extra competitor. Plus the fact that this is not a Hollywood production, but rather a Norwegian one should worry the big boys.
The show is a humorous look at a gangster played by Steven Van Zandt who turns against an enemy & goes into witness protection in Lillehamer, Norway. At current it is only being streamed, with DVD's to come later. There are 8 45 minute episodes, all available on Netflix.
The show is a "fish out of water" comedy, with the majority of the cast being Norwegian actors speaking the language with subtitles. It flows quite well & kept my interest throughout. It's original & as one reviewer said is a cross between The Sopranos & Fargo.
Now comes the question. Is this the future of programming? Can Netflix & Hulu (which also has an original production coming) compete with the networks & cable? Is the audience going to be big enough to make this a profitable or at least a break even idea? I'm sure the media outlets will be looking to see what happens. If enough people watch this show, it is conceivable that this could become a new business model. The networks won't go away, but doing it this way means an extra competitor. Plus the fact that this is not a Hollywood production, but rather a Norwegian one should worry the big boys.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Bandwith Meter Fails
Out of curiousity I installed a bandwith data meter yesterday. This is a software program that monitors how much data you use. The reason is that some ISP's are setting caps on computer usage, much like wireless companies charge you for going over the caps.
The problem is that the meters appear to be fairly useless. The one I installed was supposed to have an icon on my taskbar, so I could open it when I wanted to check it. Well, it did no such thing. I ended up re-installing it more than once. Then I shut off my computer for the night. When I started up my computer this morning, guess what? Answer: the meter wasn't active. How silly.
Had it worked properly I would have kept it. After all, I do watch a fair amount of video. Last night I watched "Who do you think you are?", a geneaology show that follows celebrities on NBC. This afternoon I watched an episode of "The Wire" on HBO GO. So that's 2 hours of video right there. It would be nice to know how much bandwith I was using. Maybe in the future someone will come up with a plugin that does the job.
The problem is that the meters appear to be fairly useless. The one I installed was supposed to have an icon on my taskbar, so I could open it when I wanted to check it. Well, it did no such thing. I ended up re-installing it more than once. Then I shut off my computer for the night. When I started up my computer this morning, guess what? Answer: the meter wasn't active. How silly.
Had it worked properly I would have kept it. After all, I do watch a fair amount of video. Last night I watched "Who do you think you are?", a geneaology show that follows celebrities on NBC. This afternoon I watched an episode of "The Wire" on HBO GO. So that's 2 hours of video right there. It would be nice to know how much bandwith I was using. Maybe in the future someone will come up with a plugin that does the job.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
DVD's Remove Menu Option
Here's something that I'm coming across more & more. Certain DVD's no longer give you the option of clicking menu on your remote & going directly to the film options. This is clearly an attempt to make you endure the multiple trailers & ads for upcoming DVD's.
This happened today on a Netflix rental. It's not the first time, & clearly won't be the last. I was forced to hit fast forward at 20X to get to the movie. Again Hollywood does what they want to do instead of what the consumer wants. And they wonder while sales are down & people pirate.
Let us watch what we paid for. I'm not interested in an ad for something I'm never going to watch. This isn't network television. What's next: not letting me skip to whatever song I want to hear on a CD?
This happened today on a Netflix rental. It's not the first time, & clearly won't be the last. I was forced to hit fast forward at 20X to get to the movie. Again Hollywood does what they want to do instead of what the consumer wants. And they wonder while sales are down & people pirate.
Let us watch what we paid for. I'm not interested in an ad for something I'm never going to watch. This isn't network television. What's next: not letting me skip to whatever song I want to hear on a CD?
Monday, February 6, 2012
Neil Young Complains About MP3 Quality
This happened recently in an interview. Young stated that Steve Jobs preferred to listen to records for sound quality. Ironic isn't it?
The problem is that we like our iPods because they are portable. I like mine because I have songs from probably 50 or more different CD's in one place.
Now one can import them in a large format like lossless, but if your iPod doesn't have the capacity, you are restricted in how much you can put on it. Mine, for instance, is 8 GB. This means 2000 songs at 128 Mbps & 4 minutes per song. Well, I import at 128, but I have a number of songs at 7, 8, even 10 minutes long. I currently have 670 songs on mine. My iPod is about half full. If I doubled the rate to 256, my iPod would be full. Go to Apple Lossless (CD size file), great sound, but guess what? I would lose half my songs.
I understand what Young is saying, but I'm not an audiophile, & the songs sound good to me, even with my upgraded Sennheiser headphones. A professional would hear defects. I don't have the ear or background for that. Eventually the cost of flash memory is going to go down. This means no more 8 GB nano's for $150. Instead, you will be able to buy an iPod with 64 GB for the same price. Think of it, that's 16,000 128 Mbps songs, 8,000 at 256, & probably around 1,000 in lossless. That would be fine. But who knows when that will be?
The problem is that we like our iPods because they are portable. I like mine because I have songs from probably 50 or more different CD's in one place.
Now one can import them in a large format like lossless, but if your iPod doesn't have the capacity, you are restricted in how much you can put on it. Mine, for instance, is 8 GB. This means 2000 songs at 128 Mbps & 4 minutes per song. Well, I import at 128, but I have a number of songs at 7, 8, even 10 minutes long. I currently have 670 songs on mine. My iPod is about half full. If I doubled the rate to 256, my iPod would be full. Go to Apple Lossless (CD size file), great sound, but guess what? I would lose half my songs.
I understand what Young is saying, but I'm not an audiophile, & the songs sound good to me, even with my upgraded Sennheiser headphones. A professional would hear defects. I don't have the ear or background for that. Eventually the cost of flash memory is going to go down. This means no more 8 GB nano's for $150. Instead, you will be able to buy an iPod with 64 GB for the same price. Think of it, that's 16,000 128 Mbps songs, 8,000 at 256, & probably around 1,000 in lossless. That would be fine. But who knows when that will be?
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