Category Archives: Opinion

March 6, 2012

Android Measuring Stick: the iOS Stick

By Dave M.

Apple iOS LogoNine days ago, I posted some info I found on how Android was fairing over each of it’s versions.

Today, pxldot posted a second article showing graphs of how iOS fairs over time and compares the two.

The graph that fascinated me the most  was one showing Version share by weeks after release. As Android barely gets to 70%, iOS gets to over 90%. More importantly, iOS 5 is at 75% now and Ice Cream Sandwich is nowhere to be seen. In fact, Honeycomb and ICS are both not even shown on the graph.

Version 20Share 20by 20Weeks 20After 20Launch 20with 20Android

In fact, Chris Sauve posts:

Even more astounding is that 15 weeks after launch iOS 4 was at 70% and iOS 5 was at 60% while Ice Cream Sandwich got to just 1% share at the same age.

So ICS is not forgotten in that graph.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Apple, iOS, Opinion

March 2, 2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

By Dave M.

Win8LogoSo like over a million others, I downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview yesterday. I have since been trying to install it without it doing very strange things to my Mac Pro.

I’ve been using the ISO image and Parallels. It’s really weird. I first installed in such a way that Windows could see my Mac’s applications. After answering a few questions (Parallels), I click a Continue button, the screen slides over like it’s going to start showing the install process, then slides back like it failed. My computer’s CPU’s start getting heavy usage yet nothing from Parallels.

I quit Parallels, it tells me doing so will stop the VM currently running. What VM? I stop it. When I start Parallels back up, I see the Windows 8 VM starting back up followed by the continuation of the installation process.

Anyway, after it finishes, I see the famous Metro start screen. I try to access it and it doesn’t appear responsive. Then I start seeing all kinds of new tiles appearing on Metro’s start screen. It’s adding all the Mac application shortcuts it’s finding on my Mac. I think that the reason it’s not responsive is because it’s adding over 700 shortcuts.

I kill the VM, delete it and try again. This time isolating the two OS’s from each other.

After the install finishes, I see the Metro start screen again, this time no new shortcuts appearing. Yet, I still can’t seem to access the start screen.

Normally, I can access Windows VM’s easily. I tell Parallels to use the USB mouse I have connected to my computer in case my Magic Trackpad’s batteries dies. I can finally access Windows, but I lose access to the Mac. What? I try the usual keys to release Parallels control over the mouse and it won’t release.

Also, after a few minutes, I lose the cursor image in Windows. Not long after that, I can’t even move the mouse around in Windows. So I can’t access my Mac Pro and Windows VM.

I’m now going to try the 32bit version of Windows 8 to see if maybe the 64bit version was causing the problems I was experiencing.

Cut to about an hour later…

I finally have an installation that is working fairly well. The mouse will only work if I make Parallels take full control of it. I still have my Magic Trackpad for the Mac so that’s better.

I’m going to spend some time with it to be fair, but first impressions of the UI is: Why would any enterprise user switch to Windows 8?

Here’s my logic. Windows has been a staple for enterprise because it was millions of “home” users used copies that were installed on their “PC”‘s for years and years.

Cut to 2012 and Windows 8. Pepsi Co. needs new computers for their offices. They have hundreds of applications that they use regularly that ran on Windows 7 or XP. Now, they are faced with a decision. Purchase 1,000 new computers with Windows 8 pre-installed, or maybe ask the company that they are buying these Windows machines from to install Windows 7 on them if that is even possible, or…

Here’s the deal. If you are forced to use Windows 8, do you stick with Windows and train all your employee’s to use Windows 8, or maybe think about using a new OS since you are going to have to train your employee’s anyway.

I’m not saying Mac OS here. Heck, even Apple seems to be on this kick to combine Mac OS and iOS into one new hybrid OS. There are other options that have been around for many years and have become way more stable than they used to be.

I am just wondering if Microsoft is really thinking about what they are doing here with Windows and really want to move to a centralized single OS for Phones, Tablets and Desktop computers.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Opinion

February 26, 2012

Android Measuring Stick

By Dave M.

Android logo font

pxldot has a great article on how Android is fairing and just how fragmented the OS is as new versions of the OS are distributed.

The problem of Android fragmentation is partially caused by the cell carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint) having control over when new OS’s get distributed. It also has a lot to do with cell manufacturers being allowed to alter the base Android OS putting their own spin on it before it goes onto their devices. The latter being a big factor in slowing down the distribution of new OS’s to users.

The article shows one very interesting graph of the percentage of handsets that have the most recent version of Android:

Preview SS001

It’s interesting to me because the percentage never exceeds 55%! So currently, about 53% of all Android handsets out there are running Gingerbread/Honeycomb (I wonder what the percentage is for each of those OS’s?) and maybe 1% to 2% are on Ice Cream Sandwich. That leaves about 45% for all the other OS’s.

In attempting to find some fragmentation info on iOS, I mostly found article discussing which OS’s app crash more frequently. Really?

I did find one site showing iOS distribution based on web impressions:

4lTUT

I’m disappointed that I couldn’t find more info on iOS fragmentation. I know it exists and I would love to see the number of users per iPhone and OS version.

Let’s face it, there have been 5 iPhones since 2007. iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. 2 versions of the iPhone have been discontinued (Original and 3G). 3 versions of iOS are used by those 5 phones. iOS version 3.1.3 for the original iPhone, 4.2.1 for the 3G and 5.0.1 for the 3GS, 4 and 4S.

If someone reading this has seen some decent stats on iOS distribution, I would love to know where to find it.

2 comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Opinion

February 26, 2012

Is it really piracy if…

By Dave M.

Pirate flag iconMarco Arment had a very interesting post about addressing problems to do with the layout of an office’s bathroom and torrent’ing movie’s/TV shows.

Not all piracy represents lost sales: many pirates would never have paid, and would rather go without whatever they can’t easily pirate. That’s not a market worth worrying too much about, because there’s not much anyone can do to stop it, and any attempts to slow it down usually just limit, inconvenience, frustrate, and anger the paying customers.

But there are a lot of people who will pay to get content legally, even if it’s easy to pirate, when getting it legally is easier. (This is now the case, to a large extent, with music.)

In response to The Oatmeal’s comic, Andy Ihnatko makes a good counterargument:

The single least-attractive attribute of many of the people who download content illegally is their smug sense of entitlement. …

The world does not OWE you Season 1 of “Game Of Thrones” in the form you want it at the moment you want it at the price you want to pay for it. If it’s not available under 100% your terms, you have the free-and-clear option of not having it.

Andy’s right. But it’s not going to solve the problem.

Relying solely on yelling about what’s right isn’t a pragmatic approach for the media industry to take. And it’s not working. It’s unrealistic and naïve to expect everyone to do the “right” thing when the alternative is so much easier, faster, cheaper, and better for so many of them.

The pragmatic approach is to address the demand.

My question to ponder is: Is it piracy if the person torrent’ing a TV show is only doing so to watch it once, then he throws away the video file?

Sure, I understand Andy’s “counterargument” perfectly. It is my choice not to spend $115 a month for the privilege to watch 10 episodes of Game of Thrones. HBO doesn’t have to bend it’s way of doing business just so I can watch Game of Thrones for a much more reasonable price.

Apparently, I could just wait a period of time and rent the DVD’s when they become available on Netflix. However, even this is difficult. 5 DVD’s for 10 episodes? What in the world is on these DVD’s that only 2 1 hour episodes fit on a standard DVD? Even if there is bonus content, only being able to watch 2 episodes before having to send the Disc back to Netflix and wait for them to send the next DVD in the series, kind of ruins the whole “renting” experience. At least for me.

It would be much better is we could just stream the show, but that probably won’t be available for quite some time. Maybe not until after season two is finished.

I suppose I should just accept the fact that HBO doesn’t give a f**k if their shows are watched or not. So long as they get their precious money from cable companies like Charter, Comcast and the others, they are more than happy with their situation.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Blog Comment, Opinion

February 20, 2012

News about MLB.com At Bat ’12

By Dave M.

Quick look at todays free amazon app mlbcom at bat mzbo 0

UPDATE 2/27/12: I just found some new info about MLB.com At Bat ’12 that you should check out. It’s in this new blog post: Update to MLB.com At Bat ’12 info.

UPDATE 2/28/12: Macworld just put up a post about the app: MLB.com At Bat warms up for 2012 season.

UPDATE 2/29/12: The MLB.com At Bat ’12 app is finally out! Take a look!

I was just informed by a friend that MLB in their infinite wisdom has drastically changed the MLB.com At Bat app for 2012. After doing a little digging, I found an article that pretty much says it all.

This year, we’ve just confirmed that MLB At Bat 12 will be free  with your subscription, which remains at $119.99 for existing subscribers. New subscriptions will be priced at $124.99. This enables you to receive 150 Spring Training games and all 2430 regular season games (some games are subject to blackout), with no added cost for either the iPhone or iPad apps.

Every article I found about this change made it sound wonderful! This would be true if you were writing to all the folks that paid the $125 subscription last season.

First off, you do not get 2,430 games! There is no way that anyone will be able to stream every game! There are games that start at similar times, the AppleTV and iOS devices can only play one stream at a time. Sure, your computer can do more than one, but how many people are going to sit in front of their “computer” and watch several games at a time. I guess, if that computer were hooked up to an HDTV, they might, but that’s about it.

Secondly, last season, people were able to pay $15 for the Game Day Audio streams. Being forced to pay almost 10x that for the ability to listen to Game Day Audio again is ludicrous!
I’m having a hard time understanding why all the reviews I have read so far about this news is positive! I would much rather pay $30 or even $50 for MLB.com At Bat ’12!

In this household. We paid the $15 for MLB.com At Bat ’11 and $15 for the Game Day Audio. We were fine with that. In fact, I paid $30 for the apps because I bought both the iPhone and iPad versions!

To be fair, it’s not all that clear if the Game Day Audio can be purchased separately and used with the app, or the only subscription that will work with the app is the full $125 one.

The $125 subscription really caters best to people who root for a team that doesn’t play in the city they live in. My wife who is a huge Indians fan living in St. Louis would benefit the most from a $125 subscription, but as a Cardinals fan, there is no big advantage.

Ah well, time to look for a new app to track baseball!

10 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in News, Opinion, Rant

February 25, 2011

Apple Blogs/Pundits Out Of Control

By Dave M.

Apple logo

Apple product and software rumors and hearsay seems to be out of control thanks to Apple centered blogs and pundits.

To be fair, Apple Blogs/Pundits have been doing this for years, but there were only a few blogs that posted rumors of new products and OS upgrades.

Lately, it seems that just about every blog has to report every little rumor it hears/reads about. It’s getting so that I don’t even want to read my RSS feeds anymore.

I am subscribed to about 30+ Apple related blogs and when Apple released FaceTime for Mac in the Mac App Store, I saw 30 or so blog posts about Apple releasing FaceTime for Mac in the Mac App Store! The ones that haven’t reported the news yet will undoubtedly report about it very soon.

The same can be said about the latest refresh of the MacBook Pro line of notebook computers. When just about every blog was posting about the specs for the new machines being posted somewhere, they pretty much all posted the info.

Whats worse, even “Tip/Hint” blogs are getting into the act. No, I really don’t need many tips/hints about the Mac or iOS these days, but I still like to follow them incase they surprise me. Yet, now they are starting to report rumors as well.

Some blogs even go as far as to make up rumors just in the slight chance that they are right and can claim to have had an exclusive beat into inside information about Apple! One site claims that March 2nd’s iPad announcement might also announce iOS 5.0 information.

I switched to Mac back in 2006 to go to an OS and manufacturer that really cares about it’s users and supports them better than any other manufacturer out there. I started following Apple blogs so that I could keep up with all the latest info on my newly favorite computer.

These days, its getting so that I just want to unsubscribe to all those blogs and just read Daring Fireball and “maybe” MacRumors. It would certainly save me a bunch of time getting through all my subscriptions.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Opinion

January 27, 2010

Real Impressions Of Apple's New iPad…

By Dave M.

ipad.png

Interesting…

Really! That’s about all I can muster. It’s really just a very large iPod touch with 3G and “assisted GPS” (what exactly is “assisted”?). It’s probably pretty fast. However, it’s hard to tell with a processor called A4. What exactly is an A4? What does it compare to?

The iLifeiLife suite of applications that will run on it sound pretty cool. Plus, $30 for the suite is way better than $80.

If I were getting a computer for my parents now, I would probably get them this iPad. It will be way easier to maintain since they would have a much harder time messing it up than the Mac Mini they have now. It would be way faster than the Mac Mini. My mother only does email and web surfing so she would be fine with it. My father plays games so would probably find most the casual games on it perfect for him.

As a “netbook” it’s severely lacking. No USB port or any expansion capabilities at all. No CD/DVD drive. No physical keyboard, but I suspect the on screen keyboard is probably just fine. The biggest problem, the AppStore and Apple’s censorship/review policy. Programs for the iPad will be vetted just like for the iPhone/iPod touch. This means that it’s not, I repeat, NOT a laptop/netbook at all. It’s a very large iPod touch!

That said, if I were getting a portable computing device (notebook, netbook, etc…), I would seriously be looking at an iPad. It’s really lite at 1.5lbs yet still pretty large for screen space. 10 hour battery life is pretty nice, but lack of expansion and the AppPrison AppStore makes it a tough option to fully decide on.

Also, as an ebook reader, I would have to say that Amazon, Sony and Barnes & Noble, don’t have a lot to worry about. The reason e-ink was invented was to make a display that was easy on a readers eyes. Back-lit screens, no matter how they are back-lit, are not easy on a readers eyes. Otherwise, reading books with notebook computers would be way more popular. That said, the fact that the iPad can do so much more than just be an ebook reader, that Amazon, Sony and Barnes and Noble probably should worry a bit.

So, all that said, will I be running out to buy one when they are available? Even if I had the money to get one? Probably not. I’ll play with someone else’s iPad and if some generous relative gives me one for Christmas, I certainly won’t return it. However, I’m not all that excited about it.

I also, don’t see this being the “tablet computer” that will attract current tablet computer users. I’m thinking of doctors here. I could be wrong, but it just doesn’t seem like a device that they would want to switch to. Even if all the software that they currently use were available.

So, good luck Apple. I hope you do well with it. I just don’t see this being the iPod/iPhone device you are hoping it will be.

9 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Opinion

January 13, 2010

Apple App Store Has Lost $450 Million To Piracy

By Dave M.

jolly-roger.jpg

If the headline is a true statement, then Apple needs to get off it’s backside and work out a way to protect applications from being pirated.

Via: 24/7 Wall St.
Apple and the companies that sell software for the iPhone and iPod touch at the App Store have lost over $450 million to piracy since the store opened in July 2008 according to an analysis by 24/7 Wall St. There have been over 3 billion applications downloaded since the App program began. Bernstein analyst, Toni Sacconaghi, estimated that between 13% and 21% of those downloads are from paid applications. According to this analysis, the average price of an application purchased at the App Store is $3. Sacconaghi estimated that Apple’s revenue from the App Store is between $60 million and $110 million per quarter. That amount has certainly increased since this research report was published because of the rapid growth of the number of applications.

If what that article is saying is true, then it’s clearly up to Apple to solve the problem. If for no other reason than to save the $135,000,000 that Apple is losing per 18 months.

There are folks out there that question the $450 million number and I must say that I have to wonder a bit too. The only way people can pirate iPhone/iPod touch apps is to jailbreak their iDevice. There are those that are doing this. In fact, some say that 10% of the iDevices out there are jailbroken. That comes to about 7.5 million jailbroken devices. Now, are we saying that, on average, each jailbreaker pirates $60 of software every 18 months? That sounds like a doable number. However, I really doubt that every jailbreaker is also a pirate. Now, what percentage of jailbreakers are pirates needs to be figured out.

The article states that 40% pirate, so now we are talking about 3 million jailbroken pirates would need to be stealing $150 worth of apps per 18 months. This still sounds like a doable figure. I mean we are talking less than 1 $0.99 app per month per jailbroken iPhone/iPod touch pirate. Assuming all the numbers are close to accurate.

If this is all true, then Apple is loosing way too much money to be sitting back and letting it happen. They must be working on something. If Microsoft can put together a system to prevent Xbox 360 pirating, then Apple can sure do something.

5 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in General, iPhone/iPod touch, News, Opinion

September 6, 2009

Re: Daring Fireball: Regarding WordPress and Security

By Dave M.

wordpress-logo.png

Daring Fireball: Regarding WordPress and Security:

…

Is WordPress poorly-designed, security-wise? Is it just a matter of WordPress being phenomenally popular? Or is it both? I don’t know. The same argument continues to rage, 15 years after it started, regarding Microsoft Windows. WordPress has much to offer, starting with its large, generous, active developer community. But I can’t recall any widespread security attacks against Movable Type or Expression Engine, or against hosted services such as Squarespace, Posterous, Tumblr, or, yes, even WordPress.com (a hosted service, rather than software you host yourself).

…

First off, I call BullShit to the statement that Movable Type or Expression Engine have not been attacked by hackers. I know of several people that host/hosted those applications and were hacked in one form or another. As far as the attacks on those user-hosted sites being “widespread”? All I can say is the same thing I say about Windows vrs. OS X viruses. There are way more attractive WordPress sites than there are other blogging application sites.

Now, I can’t speak for why Daring Fireball hasn’t been attacked more frequently than it has assuming it has at least once. Mr. Gruber certainly posts articles that rub folks the wrong way at times. (The above quoted article comes to mind…)

As to the need of having “constant vigilance” when running WordPress, if you run a weblog, no matter what blogging application you use, keeping it up-to-date is an important process. Just like Operating Systems, Windows or Mac, if you slack off keeping the OS up-to-date, you are running the risk of being hacked/getting a virus.

WordPress has always been extremely easy to keep up-to-date. Even before the semi-automatic process that is in place now. I have run WordPress for many years and upgrading to the latest version was never more complicated than uploading the latest files to my host, and running the upgrade script. Five minutes (at most) later, I was up and running again.

I have tried other blogging applications like Movable Type and Expression Engine. My impression was that none of the tools were as easy to update as WordPress was. In fact, I have made several attempts to “install” Movable Type and have never been successful in the last two years. The process is way more complicated than it should be, in my opinion.

So my sympathy goes out to the folks that have had their sites hacked/destroyed in this latest attack of WordPress installations. However, I don’t feel to sorry for them since it takes a just a few minutes out of anyones busy schedule to upgrade WordPress, no matter what version they are running prior to the latest version.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Opinion, Rant, Weblog Article Reply

August 29, 2009

AppStore Review Process Getting Worse Not Better

By Dave M.

isurprise1.png

A while back, Apple told a developer to either take out some offensive words from their dictionary application (Ninjawords) or be removed from the AppStore. This prompted Apple’s Phil Schiller to write to John Gruber at Daring Fireball to respond to the accusation that Apple was censoring the dictionary app.

I felt that Apple finally had an idea that they needed to take a good long look at their process and make some changes.

Well, I’m afraid that either they are still taking that “long look” or they decided that nothing was wrong with their process because sure enough, developers seem to be getting shafted more and more since.

icon-256.png

Case in point: iStat from Bjango. Originally, iStat had a great feature that allowed its users to “Free Memory” on their device so that they could play a game or run an application that might otherwise crash to the SpringBoard due to memory issues. Apple sent Bjango a letter stating that their software was causing confusion with it’s iPhone/iPod touch users and that they needed to remove the Free Memory feature from the software or have their iStat program removed from the AppStore.

Bjango capitulated and has since been updated with new features like a battery status display and process list.

image1.jpg

Now Apple has sent a letter to the folks over at Vanilla Breeze telling them to remove the “Broken LCD animation” from their iSurprise application or be removed from the AppStore. When asked why, Apple responded saying that they were getting too many phone calls from their customers telling them their devices have become broken by using iSurprise.

Now, I understand that the iPhone is a great device and that its designed so that even a small child can use all the features of a cell phone without having to dig into it’s manuals. However, this is getting ridiculous. Apple is actually saying that their users are so stupid that they can’t tell the difference between an application bringing up a picture of a broken screen and an actual broken screen?

Are these users so stupid that as soon as the screen appears broken, they pick up their landline and call Apple claiming that the application iSurprise broke their phone? They don’t notice that the “glass” is broken only to the edge of where the display is and not to the upper and lower edges of the phone? That pressing the Home button “fixes” the break and then tapping the iSurprise icon then tapping the screen again causes the screen to break again?

Seriously?

Are they saying that they get calls when someone’s iPhone shows a broken screen but when they have a similar application running on their iMac and the iMac’s screen shows a graphic of a broken screen that they are not confused by this, but are by the iPhone app?

brokendisplay.png

Something has to be going on at Apple above and beyond confusion by 0.001% of Apple’s iPhone/iPod touch users (assuming 400 people are calling complaining about this application, and that is being generous). It would take 400,000 users calling complaining about this problem for it to even show as 1% of their user base. What that something is, I just can’t even speculate on. It’s just too damn strange for me to figure out.

Apple needs to fix this AppStore problem, or they are going to have absolutely no developers for their precious phone/ipod as all the developers move to other platforms that don’t act like dictators.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in iPhone/iPod touch, News, Opinion, Rant

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