TechnologySpeaking

Last Day of Android's 10 Cent App Celebration Ends Tonight

2011-12-15T09:01:00.001-05:00

Earlier last week, Google announced that the Android Market had hit 10 billion downloads, and had an impressive growth rate of over a billion downloads per month. As a result, they have been celebrating by offering 10 (or so) paid apps for just $0.10 each day. Today is the 10th and final day, so if you haven't taken advantage of the promotion, this is your last chance.

This promotion is a pretty cool way to introduce a lot of people into the paid app ecosystem. The Android App Market, with its preponderance of free apps, doesn't always generate the same per-download revenue as the iOS market, and this could be a bet by Google that once people get comfortable with the idea of paying for quality apps that they will then make repeat purchases. I'll freely admit that I have recently begun to use Android, and that when I started I figured my data plan was costly enough and I'd rarely use a paid app unless it was something essential. I've been sorely tempted for the last 9 days though, and may give in today and try it out - $0.10 is just so harmless. I imagine a lot of other people have had similar reactions.

Google's methodology is interesting here when compared with what Apple did when it reached the same milestone back in January. Kevin over at ITWorld emphasizes the point that Google isn't covering the difference between the discount and the App's original costs - they have simply "partnered" with the developers, essentially offering them free promotion in exchange for the lower price. Apple, on the other hand, offered the person who made the 10 billionth download a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Kevin calls it apt but doesn't actually go into why, leaving it to each reader to insert his or her own Apple/Google stereotype into the comparison. Well, I'll bite. Apple and Google both have platforms rife with "fanboys" (and fangirls) who are devoted to the OS. In Google's case, you love Android for the large, open community feeling. In Apple's case, you love iOS because you feel it is curated just for you. So Google tries to reward the community, and Apple tries to reward you. It's the same thing, really, as an attempt to build loyalty, but the difference is interesting to think about. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments, but do tell me why if you do.

In any case, without any further ado, here are today's $0.10 Android Market Apps.

See the Android Market for more.

This content was originally published on Yahoo! Voices by Danny Shain and is posted here with permission of the author.

HP releases WebOS to open source developers

2011-12-12T10:50:00.001-05:00

The HP TouchPad. Source: HP

HP has recently announced that they'll be contributing the WebOS software to the open source community. “By contributing this innovation," CEO Meg Whitman says, "HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.”

To which most fans of WebOS likely responded, "Finally."

Palm's WebOS was much beloved by many of its users, but due to lackluster hardware in phones like the Pre and Pre Plus compared to Android and iOS phones, the software never really gained traction. When HP bought Palm earlier last year for a cool $1.2 billion, WebOS fans hoped this would mean an infusion of cash and resources that would save the operating system. HP sold the HP Veer on AT&T for a while and came out with a tablet, the TouchPad, but that lasted less than two unsuccessful months before being sold off in a firesale. The future of WebOS looked dim at this point.

However, if you check out the ~~Palm~~ HP WebOS developers blog, this announcement has gotten people excited. HP has committed to staying involved with the development of WebOS too. While other companies will be able to use the software on their own hardware for free now, this could mean HP is hoping to release some new WebOS products themselves, whether it's connected printers or another smartphone.

This is much better for the fate of WebOS than HP hoarding the technology, but with Android and iOS dominating the market, and Microsoft investing heavily in Windows 8 and Windows Phone, is there still room for WebOS? Guess we'll have to see what the open source community can do with it now that this is all out there.

IT firm Atos CEO bans Email, claims "we are not using it the way it was intended"

2011-12-08T16:21:00.001-05:00

Atos CEO Thierry Breton has made waves recently with his plan to ban the use of internal Emails at his company, one of the largest IT firms in the world with over 80,000 employees. The plan, which was first described earlier this year, calls for a zero email policy to take effect in around 18 months. Communication will take the form of social media tools, phone calls, and face to face meetings. Describing Email use in his company, Theirry told the BBC that "15% of the messages [are] useful, and the rest was lost time.".

Theirry engaged in an in-depth study and realized that managers were spending an average of 15-20 hours a week checking and answering internal emails, and that employees received an average of 100 emails a day. According to The Daily Mail, he claims only 20 out of 200 are truly important, and it takes 64 seconds to get back on the ball after reading a distracting Email. With an average employee age of 35, Breton claims his is a "young company," and that a trial run with 500 younger employees is already going great. The Telegraph quotes the supporting argument that, according to silicon.fr, only 11 per cent of 11 to 19 year-olds use Email anyway.

So is this the wave of the future?

Probably. But I'm guessing it will be a smaller wave than people think.

Ty Kiisel over at Forbes, talking about this issue, notes that he is finding an increasing amount of his communication is being done over social media, but also notes that he uses his phone more for email than for calling, which is sort of a mixed signal since it's both "the wave of the future" of phones and, according to Breton, the soon-to-be remnants of the past because it's still Email. Personally, as a smartphone owner, I certainly find myself texting more often than when I had a flip phone, and there's no denying that smartphones will be in most people's pockets sooner or later. However, I don't think Email's going away as a personal tool.

I actually find Email quicker and easier than Facebook or Twitter for directed messaging, though it obviously falls short for sharing with a large audience (I can't remember the last time I was on a list-serv). Perhaps the problem is that Email occupies a middle ground - for short messages to small groups, texting is faster, and for messages to large groups, various social media is far easier - leaving Email only with long messages to small groups. Hmm... is it me, or isn't that the domain of written letters, which is actually what Email was first supposed to replace? It didn't of course, just like eBooks have not killed written books, but it's an interesting relationship to consider. Having gone so far from that, as Breton says, maybe we're just not using it how we should anymore.

Picture via Engadget

TechnologySpeaks: The Nintendo 64 - Best Console Ever?

2011-12-04T22:05:00.000-05:00

Evan-Amos; Wikimedia

The Nintendo 64 was undoubtedly the best cartridges had to offer, but was it the best console ever?

As someone who grew up during the emergence of modern console gaming – I was born not too long before the 1985 US debut of the NES, which was my first console – it isn't easy to pick out a favorite. Sega, when it still developed consoles, was always innovating (Sega CD anyone?) and had the top sports games. In recent years, Sony and Microsoft have taken that mantel and pushed realism and graphics to amazing places. My favorite series of all time, however, is still probably Zelda, which means Nintendo, and though I do love the Wii, I need to give due credit to the Nintendo 64.

My primary argument for the N64 is that it was groundbreaking for a lot of the parts of gaming that are still my favorites. Even though it still used cartridges when everyone else was using CDs – which, besides the debatable nostalgiac charm of blowing on a game to get it to work, at least meant I couldn't scratch up my games like I did on my early Playstation – it had 3D graphics that are still playable over a decade after its debut. Also key was the fact that it had four controllers when other consoles still had two during a time before internet multiplayer. This meant it was by far the most fun to play in a group. This singlehandedly made games like GoldenEye 007 and Super Smash Brothers amazing, exposing console gamers to a kind of exciting fast-twitch experience that just wasn't an option before. And of course, plenty of single player games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time were deep, well thought out and just as fun to play as those on any other console.

The Wii might have started the most recent revolution with motion sensing, the N64 may not have the graphics chops to compete anymore, and Final Fantasy VII for the Playstation just could be my favorite game from that era (don't make me pick!). Still, the early implementation of four person gaming and the genres it spawned, combined with the strong focus still given to its single player classics, makes the N64 the best console of all time to me. Set next to a Sega Genesis and an Xbox 360 in front of my TV (truly), I'll still pick up the N64 with surprising regularity.

What do you think the best console ever was, and why?

Netflix blocks concurrent streams for some users, then unblocks it, calls it all a big misunderstanding

2011-09-07T20:26:00.003-04:00

Earlier today, some Netflix users began to discover the above error message when trying to view multiple streams on their Netflix account. NetFlix's longstanding FAQ and TOS officially state that streaming users are limited to one stream only, and that DVD users are limited to one stream per-DVD, but these restrictions had rarely if ever been enforced. On September 5th though, stopthecap reported that Netflix had suddenly and forcefully begun to enforce this policy.

Why would Netflix do this? In theory, this would stop far-flung friends from illegally sharing one Netflix account, an abuse Netflix would surely love to curb. However, many families with multiple viewers would be affected by such a change as well, left with no option but to pay more if they want their kids to be able to watch different shows at the same time. In a strange twist, the move comes at the same time as the unpopular price hikes, giving those who were frustrated with Netflix yet more ammunition.

Perhaps that's why Netflix pulled the plug on this "glitch" so quickly. According to a spokesman who spoke with stopthecap today, it was all a big misunderstanding, and no user should be limited to any less than two streams. Arstechnica confirmed that the policy is you get the number of DVDs you have out plus one, and streaming only users simply have two. As stopthecap notes though, the FAQ and other docmentation listing official limits hasn't changed, so it's hard to know if the current policies are temporary or just a response to the backlash. For now though, stream away.

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

2011-08-24T19:17:00.001-04:00

Steve Jobs - image via crunchbase

Breaking news - Steve Jobs has resigned as the CEO of Apple. Mere minutes after my iPhone 5 post comes out, Steve Jobs again steals the show.

This is huge news for both Apple and the greater tech world. Jobs is largely given direct credit for Apple's success in the last decade or so, with MacBooks, iPods, iPhones and iPads saving Apple from near-irrelevance and catapulting it to one of the most powerful companies in the world. Jobs was a very hands-on CEO, well known for his showmanship during keynote speaches and his influence on design decisions. Recently, his health problems had made it more difficult for him to handle some of these duties, and in a brief statement Jobs claimed he was no longer able to live up to the expectations of Apple CEO. He strongly recommended acting CEO Tim Cook as his successor.

It feels like the end of an era. There may not be another company on earth so represented by a single person, and with the aura of secrecy around all things Apple, there's a sense that Jobs knows things nobody else does. Apple is in a strong position, and given that Tim Cook has been acting CEO for much of this year already, it seems likely Apple will continue to lead the tech world, at least for the near future. Say what you will about the closed-garden approach of Apple as headed by Jobs, but it will be impossible for the company to replace someone so innovative.

See the statement after the break.

Update: Tim Cook has officially been named Apple's next CEO.

CUPERTINO, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

iPhone 5 to debut in mid-October, Sprint finally getting in on the action

2011-08-24T18:50:00.000-04:00

Apple's iPhone 4 - the iPhone 5 will be slimmer and lighter

Apple has finally come clean with a general release date for the next generation of its popular smartphone, announcing that the phone will be available in "mid-October," according to people "familiar with the matter" as cited by the WSJ. The WSJ also let out that Sprint, which is the third largest carrier in the US but has had difficulty holding onto its customers, will be getting both the upcoming iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4 at the same time.

Apple's policy of exclusivity with AT&T, which reigned from 2007 until early 2011, was ended when Verizon began selling the iPhone 4 in February. However, Verizon didn't get Apple's last-gen phone, the iPhone 3GS. As a result, despite very similar subscription numbers, Verizon sold 4.5 million total iPhones, compared with 7.2 million at AT&T. Sprint won't have that disadvantage when they join the iPhone selling party in October.

The iPhone 5 has been hotly anticipated for months - every iPhone after the first debuted in June, and when that month came and went with no iPhone, rumors began to fly. For everyone who has been milking another month out of their old phones while waiting to upgrade, well, you finally have a date, even if it is almost still months away. With Sprint getting in on the fun, the vast majority of Americans have iPhone access, with just T-Mobile on the outside - though as the WSJ notes, this announcement sure doesn't hurt AT&T's chances of swallowing up T-Mobile in their proposed merger (since Sprint is now stronger), so they may get it in the end too.

HP gives up and slashes price on TouchPad, considers spinning off PSG, still insists WebOS is not dead

2011-08-20T22:17:00.000-04:00

Though it was no surprise HP's webOS tablet was not selling well, HP's decision to give up on it and essentially abandon the operating system they paid $1.2 billion for less than a year and a half ago was a lot less expected. The TouchPad (pictured above at a liquidation ready $99, or about 20% of what it originally retailed at) sold so poorly that several days ago Best Buy reportedly had sold only 25,000 out of about 270,000 that it stocked initially. This was about a month and a half after the TouchPad debuted, and just a day or two before the fire sale currently underway.

According to an interview given Engadget, Stephen DeWitt, the head of HP's webOS global business unit, made clear that the decision to ax the TouchPad "doesn't mean -- in any way, shape or form, at all -- that we are abandoning webOS." However, HP has made it clear they've lost all interest in the consumer market, since at the same time they have revealed they intend to spin off the Personal Systems Group (PSG), which is responsible for making the laptops and desktops that, besides printers, most consumers know them for.

If you're looking for the HP TouchPad at that $99 price - hey, it's good hardware for the value, even if the OS is being largely abandoned - you can take a look here to see when it will be back in stock.

Publishing industry grew 5.6 percent in last three years, not dying yet?

2011-08-14T21:05:00.000-04:00

Amazon

According to a BookStats survey and dissected in a recent NYT article, book publishing has increased markedly since 2008, perhaps dispelling the general notion that books are dying off. I'm not so sure this data plainly shows that, but first let's look at some of the numbers.

Overall book sales, inclusive of e-books, increased 5.6% to $27.6 billion. The total number of books sold increased too, thought not as much, increasing 4.1% to $2.57 billion. The sale of e-books increased dramatically, expanding from 0.6% of the market in 2008 to 6.4% on 2010 on sales of 114 million books. The only really negative statistic, likely as a result of e-book success, was in mass market paperbacks, which declined a whopping 16%. Hardcover books, on the other hand, more or less kept pace with an increase of about 1%. Higher education, trade books and professional publishing both saw gains as well, possibly as a result of a larger portion of the population looking to go back to school or looking for new jobs.

As a fan of the written word, I am happy to see growth in the industry, and more books sold is more books sold no matter how you slice it. 2008 is a dangerous year to compare anything to though on a percentage level, as it was the heart of the recession, and comparing anything to that will likely end up skewed. But again, more books is more books, and this is good news for the publishing industry.

Google publicly outs 'hostile, organized campaign' by Apple, Microsoft, others to derail Android

2011-08-03T21:19:00.000-04:00

picture via android.com

That the success of Android has ruffled some feathers in the technology world is nothing new. What is new, however, is the recent accusation by Google of a "hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents," which Google goes on to say is an anti-competitive practice that will only result in more expensive Android phones and fewer phone options for consumers.

Controlling patents is a common way to protect yourself from - or arm yourself for - litigation, and Google claims its rivals are stocking up on patents big time, lamenting that "instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation." Google was a recent bidder in a large quantity of patents owned by Nortel, which had a pre-auction estimated value of around $1 billion. Google bid $900 million, well behind the winning bid of a whopping $4.5 billion by a consortium including Microsoft, Apple, and others. Google has recently picked up a cache of 1000 or so patents from IBM, but that is well under the 6000 or so owned by Nortel they missed out on.

Further reading: Take a walk down memory lane to read about the former friendly relations between Apple and Google and how they soured.

Via Google Blog

Humble Indie Bundle 3 debuts, name your price and donate to charity

2011-07-27T21:28:00.004-04:00

Wolfire Games has just released Humble Indie Bundle 3, a collection of 5 indie computer games that are being sold on a pay what you want basis. That's just like it sounds, meaning you will get 5 brand new, cross platform, DRM free games for however much you want to pay for them. If that's not enough to make you interested, perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Humble Bundle is that you can designate a portion - or the entirety - of your contribution to charity.

The Humble Bundle 3 consists of 5 games - Crayon Physics Deluxe, Cogs, VVVVVV, HammerFight, and And Yet It Moves. All 5 games work on Mac and Linux as well as Windows, with several making cross platform debuts as part of the Bundle. Besides choosing to pay the developers (let me repeat, that's a choice), you can also choose to donate any percentage of your payment to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Child's Play, or the humble folks at Humble Bundle Inc who are fronting the hosting and promotion costs.

Classy donation amount, Andy

Humble Bundle 3 is actually the fourth Humble Bundle, confusingly enough, as the 3rd was named the "Humble Frozenbyte Bundle" and they returned to a numeric sequence for the fourth. What's not confusing, however, is the effect the Bundle is having. With an average purchase price of $4.81, the Bundle has already raised a total of $588,000 (and rising) within a day. Priced at retail, the 5 games would cost $50. If you've got platform pride, the site breaks down donations by platform as well - with a sizable lead right now, it looks (unsurprisingly) like Linux users are the biggest indie supporters out there.

This is one of the greatest things I've seen in a while. Visit the Humble Indie Bundle here in the next 13 days or so to check it out for yourself.

If you turn your head just right, close one eye and and squint a little...

2011-07-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

...the date on my post shows that I've only taken about a week off.

In any case, I'm back. Technologyspeaking is being revived, and you can expect posts at least weekly about the world of technology and my thoughts thereof. The first post of this renaissance will be appearing above this one in a few minutes.

I know you've been waiting a long time for technologyspeaking to come back (after all, it's been 15 days, right?)... Thanks for your patience!

China renews Google's license, Google.cn to stay

2010-07-12T12:34:00.000-04:00

Up until as recently as a few days ago, when China renewed Google's ICP (Internet Content Provider) license, Google was on the verge of going "dark in China," as Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond put it. This was due to a controversial decision made in January to stop censoring the results on its Google.cn search page. The decision came on the heels of widely publicized hacking attempts on Google and other organizations originating in China, and shocked a great many people. The Chinese government was obviously unhappy with this, and as China is the world's largest growing market of internet users, Google had a lot to lose with this gamble.

Initially, Google redirected Google.cn users to Google.hk, it's Hong Kong search page, which is still in Chinese but subject to different laws and which did not have to be filtered. This workaround proved insufficient to appease the Chinese government, and rather than leave China entirely in the hands of Baidu, Google reconfigured the Google.cn landing page to what it is today. A few links on the bottom allow for limited services to still run off the Chinese site, but that image of an actual search box is just that - an image - and redirects to the Hong Kong site. This compromise appears to work for both parties, and Google.cn is on firm footing again, at least for the moment.

Google was already playing second fiddle to Baidu in China by a wide margin - when I covered this topic back in January, I had seen numbers in the low 30s for Google's market share - and their recent troubles have only made things worse. According to BusinessWeek, its share declined from around 35% 3 months ago to around 30% today, on top of the fact that Google has lost several key sponsorships. However, 30% is still a whole lot better than nothing. All in all this seems like a good compromise where Google gets to feel like it keeps its integrity, and also at least a share of the Chinese market.

Further reading (googleblog) - Google enters China, Google leaves China, Google gets renewed in China

Firefox 4 Beta now available for download

2010-07-07T23:51:00.002-04:00

Firefox 4 has just released a stable beta, as pictured in the screen shot above. Aside from the usual improved standards and bug fixes, which are notable in and of themselves, the new release includes an overhauled UI. One of the first things you'll notice is that the tabs have been moved to the top of the window, and the menu bar has been replaced by a single orange Firefox button on the upper left. The Bookmarks menu has been similarly condensed into a button on the right hand side, below the tabs. Next to that there is a feedback button, where you can tell Firefox what makes you happy or sad. Another nice UI feature that I noticed is that in Windows 7 the tabs are now integrated with the taskbar, and hovering over the Firefox icon brings up a preview of each tab rather than just a single window as Firefox 3.xx does.

Some of the notable technical changes include native support for the HTML5 WebM video format, which enables hardware accelerated HD video playback straight from the browser, and support for both Direct2D and WebGL, though they are disabled by default for now.

There are a number of other changes too, such as an improved add on manager, a combining of the refresh and stop buttons into one, and too many more to list here. Check out the handy big chart o' features and the changelog for more. Beta testers will want to remember that the design is not yet finished, and some features may be hard to find without turning on the menu bar via the "customize" menu located in the Firefox button or by pressing "alt". Download the new Beta here.

Via The Mozilla Blog

Welcome to TechnologySpeaking, the blog!

2010-07-07T21:33:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone - yes, both of you - and welcome to my blog. Introductions are always awkward and I want to jump right in with content, so I'll be brief here. Having worked for the last two years as a tech blogger for other people, and still having the initial twin loves of tech and writing that got me into it in the first place, I have decided it's time to start one of my own.

The name was chosen because it is vaguely a pun and sounds like it's about technology. Read me long enough and you'll see puns occupy a far, far greater portion of my writing than anyone in their right mind should allow. Now that I'm down to one reader, I'll explain how I choose my topics.

I will post about what I like. I am an avid reader of tech blogs (literally part of my job description) and occasionally have an opinion or two - the best of what I see and think, I'll post. I like discussion, so feel free to talk back to me at any time with your own opinions or even just stories you think I should post about. The name of the blog is Technologyspeaking, after all. Emails can be sent to technologyspeaking@gmail.com.

Just a note - technology may speak differently to all of us, but comments that are not constructive or at least funny as hell in my own personal estimation will not be tolerated. But I'm getting ahead of myself, talking about comments on a blog with no posts.

Well, all right. Time to jump right in. Nice to meet all of you.