Android most popular OS amongst recent US smartphone buyers

Oct 6, 2010 by Dan Taylor    1 Comment     Posted under: Technology

Metrics firm Nielsen have recently released the findings of their smartphone OS survey, placing Android at the top of the pile.

The survey was conducted over a period of 8 months, January 2010 – August 2010, and shows that Android overtook Apple’s iOS in late March/early April. The current state of the market finds Android with a 32 percent market share, while Research In Motion and Apple are tied in a statistical dead heat at 26 and 25 percent, respectively.

And while more Android OS based devices have been sold over the past 6 months, Blackberry still holds the dominant market share, with 31 percent of all smartphones out there today sporting the Blackberry logo. This lead however is on the decline, as the Nielsen survey found 28 percent of all smartphone owners pocketing an iPhone, with only 19 percent reporting Android devices.

Apple freshens up iMac

Jul 28, 2010 by Dan Taylor    3 Comments    Posted under: Technology

As a proud owner of a 27” iMac, I’m both excited and bummed to see the new iMac updates. Excited, as they’ve met the very few, “Really? Why ISN’T there an SDD inside this thing?,” requests that I’ve had, and bummed because…well, I don’t have one.

Whenever I acquire new gear, I generally have the same rule of thumb, find the top of the line item, and then back it off one or two. The same applied to my iMac 27. I don’t have the 2TB drive, and I don’t have the maxed 16 GB of RAM, but rather 1TB and 8GB. Therefor, whenever new updates like this come out, I’m not completely behind the curve.

Starting at $1,199, the new iMac line features Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 options, with dual core speeds up to 3.6 GHz and quad core doing 2.93 GHz. Add to that blisteringly fast processing power an ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics card, and daaaang skippy, that’s one nice all-in-one you’ve got there.

But processors and graphics cards aren’t the only shiny new toys for iMac. In addition, Apple has beefed up their SD card reader to now include SDXC format, sure to please any digital photog or those using cutting edge high capacity storage cards.

And speaking of storage, and it looks like I missed it by one generation, Apple has finally added an SSD HDD option to the iMac lineup. iMac 27 customers will have the option to include a 256 GB solid state drive in either the primary or secondary role. With data transfer speeds of up to 215 MB/second, can you say “primary drive startup and program launch in the blink of an eye” ? Yeah. Me too. ?

And what would a product line update be without a little fun. Completely unnecessary, but falling under the, yes, I want one category, Apple now has an oversized touchpad (similar to those found in the MacBook line) for desktop users. Dubbed The Magic Trackpad, it houses the same technology as Apple’s notebook pointing device, and offers the same intuitive gestures as it’s smaller cousin.

Specifications from the low-end 21.5” 3.06 GHz i3 – $1,199:

• 21.5-inch 1920 x 1080 LED-backlit display;
• 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM;
• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight® video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• one FireWire® 800 port;

And on the other end of the spectrum, the 27” 3.6 GHz i5 – $1,999

• 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit display;
• 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 5750 discrete graphics with 1GB GDDR5;
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video input and output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• one SDXC SD card slot;

“We took the world’s best all-in-one and made it even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the latest processors, high-performance graphics and signature aluminum and glass design, customers are going to love the latest iMac.”

Again, the only thing I’m really missing is the SSD option, which I’m happy to see Apple now offering.  These new iMacs are sure to make a welcome addition to any desk, and hey…Apple, if you’re listening – Retrofit an SSD option to previous iMac generation owners?

iPad app coming to a Catholic altar near you soon

Jun 21, 2010 by Dan Taylor    1 Comment     Posted under: Technology

Reverend Paolo Padrini has a particularly difficult job. He’s a consultant to an organization that still believes men who love god can’t love women. His job is to consult the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications. In other words – God’s Facebook page admins.

All jokes aside, Padrini does score points for pulling an archaic organization kicking and screaming into the 21st century. He’s developed an iPad application that will allow priests to dispense with the Roman missal, and conduct mass directly from an iPad. The official Vatican approved application is slated for release in July, and will be available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin.

This, however, isn’t Padrini’s first Vatican themed app, as two years ago he was the driving force behind iBreviary, an app that brought the book of daily prayers used by priests to iPhones around the world. According to Padrini, the application has been downloaded over 200,000 times.

The new iPad focused app will not simply be an upscaling of iBreviary, but rather the complete missal – i.e. the Priest’s script. The initial offering will be text only, but future upgrades are already planned and include audio commentaries and suggested homily themes.

The 36 year old Padrini hails from Northern Italy and expects that priests who travel a great deal will find this newest offering indispensable. He noted that he recently celebrated a mass in a small parish where the missal was, “a small book, a bit dirty, old.”

“If I had had my iPad with me, it would’ve been better than this old, tiny book,” says Padrini.

Since receiving his first iPope Pod in 2006, Emperor Palpatine Pope Benedict XVI has sought to reach out to a younger generation through tools they readily consume: technology. Based on the success of the iBreviary application (being a priest, and Italian probably didn’t hurt), Padrini was recruited by the Vatican to oversee their pope2u.net youth outreach program in the new media realm.

Padrini stresses that this app, just like that of iBreviary is of his own initiative, and not officially endorsed by the Vatican.

That would be far too progressive.

Plastic Surgery? There’s an App for that.

Jun 20, 2010 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News

In the never-ending quest to ‘app’ize the world, developers’ creativity certainly seems to know no bounds. As of this past Friday, there’s now an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch app that focuses on the up sides of facial plastic surgery.

Commissioned by Dr. Steven Denenberg of Omaha, Nebraska, the “Facial Plastic Surgery: Before and After,” app displays hundreds of before and after photos and communicates what’s involved in the facial plastic surgery process.

“The iPad is the next powerful communication tool,” Dr. Denenberg said. “Its gorgeous display lets us present huge photos, and its touch screen makes the app fun and easy to navigate.”

Harvard and Stanford trained Denenberg has been listed as one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. consecutively since 2001. Denenberg has been recognized by Vogue and W magazines, and serves patients clients from over 50 countries around the world.

Now I’m not quite sure what makes this an ‘app’, as from what I’ve seen, it’s basically a glorified e-book. Which reminds me, if viewing hundreds of photos of what plastic can do for your looks isn’t enough for you, Denenberg’s app also includes a bonus 200 page e-book including photos of how plastic surgery operations are performed. Ghoulish fun included!

If the app included the ability to integrate high resolution photos of one’s self, and then using the touch screen interface, manipulate the image via the confines of what today’s plastic surgery can do – ok…win. But again, as it is right now, there’s plenty of pictures, but that’s about it.

Score one (more) for Dr. Denenberg, as he’s first-to-market with a plastic surgery app, as well as owning the perfect plastic surgery URL, FacialSurgery.com. I’m not sold on the effectiveness of the app, but clearly Dr. Denenberg and staff know how to drive traffic, and ultimately sales. Hats off to you sir.

Should you need a facelift are interested, Dr. Denenberg’s scary book of pictures can be found at App33.com.

1 Million iPads sold in 28 Days – Streaming World of Warcraft

May 3, 2010 by Dan Taylor    5 Comments    Posted under: Games, News

The number itself isn’t surprising, but it’s always nice to have an official word from the producer. Apple confirmed today that their millionth iPad was sold last Friday.

In a press release, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says, “One million iPads in 28 days–that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone. Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

To date, iPad users have downloaded 12 million apps and 1.5 million ebooks.

Early estimates from industry analysts placed 1.3 million iPads sold by the end of June. As per usual, Apple is blowing predictions out of the water.

And in related news…

Games Developer legend David Perry has been working on some exciting stuff over the past few years, least of which is his Gaikai project. At it’s root, Gaikai is a browser based game streaming technology that uses server side streaming.

Great. Browser based games are nothing new, and at first glance, Gaikai might just be another run of the mill, games in browser technology. However,

When’s the last time you played WoW on anything other than your desktop?

Perry recently posted this image to his personal blog, showing a live copy of World of Warcraft running on an iPad (or a really good photoshop job). What’s interesting about this is that Gaikai is designed to work with a Flash Player, which obviously isn’t going to happen on an iPad. So has Perry cracked the code, or is this a prototype version of the game specifically designed for Perry and co. to test with? Either or … expect to see WoW on the go in one form or another in the near future.

HTML5 puts Google Gears offline permanently

Apr 15, 2010 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: Technology

With all the hoopla surrounding Monday’s announcement of a new and improved version of Google Docs, there’s one little phrase at the bottom of the announcement that may have passed by the average office worker: Gears is going offline. For good.

Google Gears is/was a plugin that allowed users to access their Google Docs sans internet connection, i.e. an ‘offline’ mode. Starting May 3rd, this option will no longer be available to Google Docs users, with functionality being “temporarily removed” … at least according to the official blog announcement. The same announcement does however, cite that Gears support will still be available for Gmail and Google Calendar.

So what gives? Why is Google taking the toys away? Well, the plain and simple answer is: HTML5. If you’ve not already familiarized yourself with HTML5, now would be the time, as these changes are likely to effect you. HTML5 is the next version of the markup language used to code the web (in one form or another). Note the phrase here: to code the web. Looking at Google Gears, we see the suffix: plugin. What we have here is a web standard vs. a plugin. Which one do you think is more attractive to developers?

By utilizing a new web standard, Google is freeing itself from the compatibility problems that can often arise when using plugins. For example, Apple’s Snow Leopard OS and Safari 4 introduced some new features that effectively squashed the ability to use Gears on newer Macs. Internet Explorer users were never able to view spreadsheets offline, and ‘other’ browser users either had zero Gears functionality, or had to jump through a ring of fire to obtain even minimal functionality.

Likewise, by switching to an HTML5 standard, Google is preemptively removing itself from the current shitstorm surrounding Apple’s decision not to allow the Adobe Flash plugin. In other words, they’ve found a clever, and competent, workaround to Apple’s sometimes draconian control of what makes it, and what doesn’t make it to their platform(s). With the inclusion of a new web standard, all Google has to do is conform Docs to this standard, et voilà, a cloud based document creation tool that will work in both off and online modes … internet connected or not.

While Google is remaining tight lipped on when exactly the HTML5 implementation will go live, they are hosting a webinar on 4/20 to further outline details of the ‘new’ Google Docs and all it’s functionality.

Is Apple working on a PayPal killer?

Aug 5, 2009 by Dan Taylor    10 Comments    Posted under: News, Technology

Just about everywhere you go these days, someone’s trying to make it easier for you to pay. Obviously, the driving force behind this is to ultimately make the sale by facilitating the consumers option to pay. And while the internet has seen it’s fair share, some successful, others not, of ways to pay, there is a constant stream of improvements to the method making their way to market everyday. But let’s face it, when it comes down to paying for something via the internet, without a direct credit card charge, my guesstimate would be that 85% of the average internet surfing/shopping consumer could name only one: PayPal.

We already know for certain that facebook has been playing with microtransactions and multiple payment platforms and options via their “Pay with Facebook” system, but as of now, we’ve got nothing but confirmations that something is being worked on. All that might come to a grinding halt if Wall Street gossips have any validity behind them. Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that said gossiper(s) may have had one too many drinks at a lower Manhattan establishment recently, and mentioned that Apple execs have dropped hints suggesting that the primarily hardware focused company is considering creating a service that would allow iTunes users (store account holders, with a valid credit card on file, or course) to use those accounts to pay for things outside the iTunes realm.

Remember, with the introduction of the iPhone OS 3.0, users are now able to spend freely on virtual and subscription goods within third party iPhone applications. In other words, the vast majority of the technology is already there, it’s just a question of opening this tech up to interface with external third-party platforms.

Now again, traditionally Apple has worked on projects that will solely drive hardware sales. iTunes certainly drove/drives iPod and iPhone sales, so why the interest in what basically boils down to a SaaS? Once you’re at the top of the pile, it’s tough to stay there. There are plenty of upcomers, as you once were, that are hungry and eager for your spot. Perhaps Apple is looking at a payment platform as a natural extension of their already easy to use iTunes Store functionality. One could make the argument that via iTunes, Apple effectively brought the microtransaction payment mechanism to the masses via iTunes, so why limit the functionality just to music? Apple has already branched out into providing video, either for rent or purchase, and again, with the OS 3.0 introduction, provided a way for application developers to monetize through in-game microtransactions.

While this is mere speculation and gossip at this point, a three way battle between eBay (parent company to PayPal), Facebook, and Apple would most certainly up the ante for all parties involved. Competition is a time tested catalyst for innovation, and any way you look at this battle, the ultimate winner is both the consumer and the vendor. Let’s see what Cupertino’s got in store (ouch…no pun intended) for us next.

Obama’s nerd creds

Jun 23, 2009 by Dan Taylor    2 Comments    Posted under: News, Video

You may recognize Hodgman from his Daily Show appearances, of perhaps more so from his “…and I’m a PC” line from Apple’s popular advertising campaign.  Yes, this clip is 15 minutes long, but worth every moment, so go grab a fresh cup, sit back, and enjoy Hodgman’s vetting of President Barack Obama’s nerd credentials.

Now, if Obama had only closed the session with the correct Vulcan response, “Peace and Long Life” he would have scored 110 in my book.  However, he also loses points for playing the ‘basketballs’, so we’ll average him out at about an 85% nerd rating.  Fair enough?  I think so too.

A big thanks to Brent for sending over this gem.