On Wednesday, March 2nd, Apple has invited to a media event where it will announce the iPad 2 – just smack during CeBit. Here’s what I expect, and what I don’t expect:
After this brutally honest memo of Nokia’s new CEO Stephen Elop (ex MSFT) all signs hint to a big announcement on Friday that Nokia will drop their mobile OS Meego in the favor of adopting Windows Mobile 7.
For both partners this is a last time opportunity. Android is eating away the profits at the low end and Apple is dominating the high end. They will have a tough time trying to squeeze in between. Fighting a two front war isn’t fun anyway, and two loosing armies aren’t a strong coalition either.
Nokia is betting big here, but IMO it’s already too late for them.
Update 11/2/11: As expected, they announced it… not that there are short of ambition:
There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them.
There will be challenges. We will overcome them.
Success requires speed. We will be swift.
Well, let’s see. Neither Nokia nor Microsoft have been swift recently, but they better start now. Symbian will be outphased to milk the cheap end of the market as long as possible, Meego is kept in dormancy mode and likely will not wake up again. Effectively this reduces the number of mobile platforms of any relevance to 5: iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, HP/Palm.
The WeTab was a tablet computer announced to be delivered even before Apple’s iPad in Germany, based on a Linux system. It was supposed to be an alternative publishing solution as well, so it got a lot of support at least from the German press, who are looking for alternatives to Apple and Amazon when it comes to electronic publishing.
After some delays it was delivered last week, and despite mediocre press the week before launch I took the opportunity to see the device myself. It’s hard to believe that they released this like it is. It is the ultimate storm.
I always thought that Android would be sensible to market fragmentation, and I believed it would be their biggest issue. I was wrong.
Well, it looks like the iPad will stay more a less alone in their segment for a couple more weeks than expected. Last weeks brought a couple of new developments that were not playing in their favor. Continue reading ‘Current State of “iPad Killers”’
After the iPad announcement there was – and still is – a lot of geek talk that this thing should support Adobe Flash, and that a 16:9 screen ratio would have been much more interesting. Meet the JooJoo, aka CrunchPad. The most interesting thing about this device review in Engadget is not the poor execution of this ”iPad Killer“, but that they found the 16:9 ratio very bad for browsing and reading, and Flash indeed a serious impact on battery life – bringing battery run time from a mediocre 5 hours down to a measily 2.5!
There’s a key issue with Flash which will impact all Linux/Android devices: Only Adobe can make it faster. The only decent implementation of Flash today is on Windows. It’s a huge performance hog on OS X, Linux and any mobile OS, and so drains the battery of any mobile device quickly. Adobe has to work hard on this to make it into the mobile space, or many sites will look for alternatives to deliver their content.
This jewel is found in the iPad FAQs:
The device isn’t yet on the market, but Apple already has a battery replacement service in place – for 99$ plus S&H they exchange your unit with one with a fresh battery! Apple is really going after those non computer types, and for a huge market share. They are really changing the rules of the game.
This is as ungeeky as it gets. Great thinking.
A short proof of concept animation for a Bike-Rig. There’s still more to do, especially for a moving center of gravity, and also for mass inertia.
I’m also going for a “looser” control, as bikes tend to produce jumps when the center of gravity is changing direction – just like in the real world.
What conservatives can teach the free culture movement…
Published March 9, 2010 Patents and Copyrights Leave a CommentTags: Copyrights
Well, it’s a bit of an an american perspective, but I appreciated the insight of Lawrence Lessig nonetheless, and I don’t think it’s limited to the states.
See the video he posted on blip.tv after the break>
Best piece I’ve read yet on the impact of the iPad on book publishing:
Books in the age of the iPad from Craig Mod:
Print is dying.
Digital is surging.
Everyone is confused.
The whole publishing business is changing, and the kind of reading devices plays a major role in it. As Craig puts it:
IT’S NO WONDER WE LOVE OUR PRINTED BOOKS — we physically cradle them close to our heart. Unlike computer screens, the experience of reading on a Kindle or iPhone (or iPad, one can assume) mimics this familiar maternal embrace.
