Steve Jobs: his memory will be eternal

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Steve Jobs was more than just a a tech industry visionary and genius. Historians will see him in the same genre as the Henry Fords and Nelson Rockefellers. Let’s just think about what Apple-channeling-Steve brought to our world: from a strictly product perspective: Apple ][, Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iTunes. From a cultural perspective, he brought us the personal computer, the mp3 music player for the rest of us, the smartphone for the rest of us, the tablet for the rest of us, legitimized digital music and movie downloads, and he essentially led the entertainment and telecom industry into the 21st century. I count myself fortunate to have been at the right place at the right time to have not only witnessed this history, but to have played an active role in it, starting my tech career with assembly language programming the hardware in the Apple ][.

The nearest possible relevant comparison is Bill Gates. Even though Gates is a giant in the industry, he doesn’t even begin to compare to what Steve brought to our world.

When one passes on, the Orthodox Christians say, “May his memory be eternal”. Regardless of your belief system, the memory and legendary “Reality Distortion Field” of Steve Jobs will eternal as the man that represents more than any other our entrance into the 21st century.

Aloha, Steve Jobs

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via apple.com

iPhone 4S being unveiled

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Apple is clearly the world’s greatest consumer electronics company and today’s unveiling of the new iPhone 4S keeps them on top of all the other players. Key features like full HD 1080p video recording, improved camera, and integration with “Siri” a futuristic gee-whiz feature that acts as a personal assistant to your voice. The demo shot here shows Siri helping me find a Greek restaurant which is pretty cool because I’m Greek! 🙂

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via engadget.com

HTC phones security flaw; EVO, Thunderbolt & others

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Any installed app that has “Full Internet Access” permissions (which you would think is most if not all apps as they typically use a Net connection for their functionality) also has access to a lot what we might regard as private data including phone and sms log data (including phone numbers)

Many HTC phones have been identified as affected, including EVO 4G, EVO 3D, Thunderbolt, and Shift. Other HTC phones may be vulnerable too but that has not been confirmed. You can get in-depth technical information from “Android Police“

Right now there is no patch or workaround. My recommendation is that you only install or run “name brand” apps that wouldn’t unnecessarily have an interest in violating your privacy

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via bbc.co.uk

Read the Dead Sea Scrolls courtesy of Google

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Every so often Google launches one of those “gee whiz” features and this is one of them. Maybe you’ll be the one to uncover the next theoConspiracy?

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via googleblog.blogspot.com

Did you get fooled by the iphone 5 hoax?

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Summary: If you get an email about something that’s too good to be true, always Google it with the word “hoax” appended. You’ll be amazed to find out that Elvis has indeed passed away and aliens have not in fact invaded the president’s brain.

Today I got an email from a family member asking me about whether she should buy the iphone 5. I asked her why and she loved the idea of the “holographic keyboard”. Huh? Suddenly I thought perhaps I was getting out-geeked by family members learning about new features before I did. Say it isn’t so! Apple is usually very secretive about future iPhone Pheatures and other than guessing what’s next by analyzing Chinese case manufacturer designs, we’re pretty much in the dark until the very end.

Quick searches (“iphone 5 hoax”) landed me to this now-famous (21 million views!) YouTube which shows an incredibly impressive demonstration of the (now watch the wording here) “iPhone 5 Concept Features”.

Yes, it’s a hoax. Sorta. It’s actually a brilliant marketing play by Aatma Studios on a “concept” with “our vision of key features” that an iPhone 5 or “subsequent models” could have

In other words, this is vaporware. Doesn’t exist. My recommendation is that you wait until after the formal launch to decide if iPHone5 is right for you.

 

I am speechless after seeing the concept video of the iPhone 5 that is set to be released later this year. It is an ultra thin design, has a laser keyboard and has holographic display. Just Wow!

via webguild.org

Will you watch Xbox TV this Christmas?

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Heavy Xbox users won’t be surprised to find out that Microsoft will be expanding functionality with “Xbox TV” this Christmas (2011).

Xbox users can already rent movies and watch Netflix and Hulu Plus. It will be interesting to see how they will further their penetration into this space which has been traditionally dominated by cable companies. (Disclosure: Oceanic Time Warner Cable sponsors my Your Computer Minute vignette on the radio). Can Microsoft provide a better set-top box experience? What happens when the world’s largest software company connects the Web to TV programming on its existing installed base of 55 million devices and 35 million paying subscribers?

We’re about to find out. What do you think?

How do you feel about Netflix spinning off DVD service?

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The CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, just penned a blog post combining an apology for how they handled recent price increases and an announcement of a new company spinoff, “Quickster”, which will handle the DVD-by-mail service. The idea is that Netflix focuses on streaming and Quickster focuses on DVD by mail.

I know a lot of people are upset about the price increase (if you did both streaming and dvd by mail you will now pay more for what you used to get) but IMO Reed did the right thing. Why? He is absolutely correct that companies rarely if ever transition from one paradigm to another. For example, IBM did not successfully transition to the PC market (they no longer produce PCs) and traditional newsprint companies are struggling to succeed in the online world. The best example of all, Blockbuster, is struggling to stay out of bankruptcy.

Why do companies fail to make the transition? Because they must “eat their own children” i.e. they must sacrifice their existing customer base in order to grow the new one. And as you might guess, nobody likes eating their own children (ETOC).

Netflix is at a point where they must either ETOC, fail like the rest, or spin off the old business. Spinning off the DVD business makes the most sense to me. Quickster now gets to compete in the DVD market where it will experience a slow and gradual decline while Netflix can really focus on the exploding streaming business. What will be particularly interesting is that as these two companies further separate themselves, will Netflix have the courage to “take out” Quickster like they would want to eliminate Blockbuster?

That will be the moment of truth for Netflix. We’ll see if they will be willing to “eat their previous offspring” or not.

What do you think about the spinoff? Lets try to keep the comments off the rate increase as I would agree nobody would support it and there’s no point in ranting about something we all agree on (we don’t like rate increases!). I’d like to get some feedback on what you think about the business concept of spinning off Quickster vs. keeping it within Netflix.

via blog.netflix.com

Low-priced 10″ Archos Android Tablet coming: $399

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I’m so torn between getting and iPad right now and holding off until the Android tablets drop enough in price. Here’s one more straw on the camel’s back as what looks like a nice 10″ tablet with 16gb of storage going for $100 less than an iPad w/ the same amount of memory. Is that enough to make me buy the Android’s limited app selection? Probably not (meaning that yes, fans, I would, today, buy an iPad) but if the prices keep dropping and more apps start showing up on the Android, Apple will really have to keep cranking out the hits as they have in the past to stay out in front of this tablet monster.

What do you think?

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via reviews.cnet.com

Got Android? Get GooGoo for Goggles

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Google Googles is one of those OMG! apps. You just take a picture of something in public and Google attempts to match the image against its database and provide you more information. It’s quite astounding and an indication of a “virtual assisted reality” future where our sunglasses constantly scan what we’re looking at and continually provides more in-depth information (think Terminator eyes).

Though that feature isn’t quite here yet, you can still get some pretty good functionality with this App. It’s worth the free install if only to try it out and show to your friends. Besides, it also scans QR codes too.

Let’s say that I’m going on vacation, and I decide to use my Android-powered phone as my primary camera. Goggles would identify landmarks, paintings and other interesting objects in my photos. I can share these facts about my vacation with my friends right from my Goggles search history.

  

via googlemobile.blogspot.com

Unlock Google Labs for Great Goodies

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If you’re using gmail, you’ve got to explore gmail labs to get fantastic productivity. Just go to settings and then click on Labs and you’re in for a real treat. My favorite is the Send and Archive add on which sends your email and archives it with a single click.