* Posts by RegisterThis

164 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jan 2010

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Apple iAds soar as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! sink

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Wouldn't it be nice if the mobile add market shrank as a whole?

Personally I don't want any mobile adds? Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo ... anyone ... zero percent share of a non-existent market would be far nicer news!

(On the other hand, is this really news at all ... or just a reflection that Google, MS et al have zero percent share of the closed Apple eco-system for mobile adds to start with ... i.e. a reflection that iAds has 100% share of Apples eco-system?)

Steve Jobs in iPhone bitchslap to creationists, Tea Party

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Grenade

Process vs. Origin?

As far as I know, Evolution is about a (factual) PROCESS that starts with ... err 'something'. 'Creation' is about ORIGIN ... that 'somthing'. I should not have to point this out as the words EVOLUTION and CREATION pretty much speak for themselves! (In case this is too challenging, an example: When speaking about how an IT system has evolved to be what it is today, nobody would think that you were talking about the reasons and whyit was put in originally)

The bible was never written as a scientific manual (imagine Moses writing Genesis and trying to explain the Big bang?) ... it is about God as the ultimate creator and our relationship as humans to him and it emphasises that at *some time* in a PROCESS, God intervened and made us different to other animals be giving us a conscience.

Christians who choose to read the bible as a scientific explanation (i.e. 7 days, no dinosaurs mentioned etc.) miss the point. 'Evolutionists' who choose to take issue with this clearly do too!

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Joke

"There are many other countries"?

BANNED*

*On the grounds of aiding and abetting terrorism and making the world a dangerous place.

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Jobs Halo

Thank you ...

... for lending some balance here! It seems this debate is more centred around those who are anti- 'any creationist' or anti- 'any evolutionary theory' ... and should not really be a debate except for the press and some populist authors choosing to represent the extreme views as it gets more hits. Full marks to Apple for allowing observable theories to be made public - that in my mind,are a very different issue to pornography which is a moral issue. Still, Saint jobs is a curious fellow as not many corporates even bother with morality unless it is might get them sued.

Apple iPod Touch 4G

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Agreed ...

Its nothing new ... other devices 'tried/try' full mobile video calling (which has never really taken on due to crappy 3G currently) and this is beyond this ... this is Apple 'proprietary skype' ... and if the truth be told, most of its users probably have a Skype account for already and that does not limit them to Apple device owners only. My guess is added for marekting reasons. (after all, most of the technical press drank the coolaid and announced video calling as an Apple first too!) ...

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... or how many are you going to buy?

Yeah, I too am a little confused by Apple's positioning of the IPhone, ITouch and IPad.

I remember analysts writing prior to the iPad release that the Apple Cult was such that a new Apple device was pretty much expected to have a minimum 6 million 'fans' who would buy it regardless of reviews or alternatives etc. So financially, it makes sense for Apple to have these (at least what I see as) overlapping devices?

Assuming sense and a limited tech budget, what gets bought?

If you have an iPhone, then this makes no sense? If you have an iPad, then this makes no sense? About the only combination that does make sense would be the iPhone and iPad?

Personally as a non-iPhone owner (lovelly to look at, but does not meet my needs which go beyond the info-tainment it excels at), the touch makes sense as a PMP. But then there are Androids and Nokias (Desire Z and E7) released which meet my phone productivity needs and probably make the iTouch redundant albeit with a few sacrifices maybe from the PMP angle ... so an iPad? (Except that I want a tablet that has full 'netbook' type functionality i.e. with removable storage etc. and definitely a camera!)

I think is almost exclusively aimed by Apple as an executive toy (hence higher price) i.e. for the blackberry/Nokia and laptop toting crowd who see no need for the iPhone and iPad. They want the rest to buy the iPhone otherwise they lose out on the future which seems to be increasingly LBS (location based services) based which their iTouch will be limited in.

Nokia’s new CEO needs to change the message

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Amen ...

Best article I have seen on Nokia and the whole smartphone war for a long time. (Warning long brain dump post as a result of my eyegasms from reading this post)

"For a start, Nokia should stop trying to pretend it wants to be Apple, and talk up its own strengths and plans."

-> I agree 100% - and if anyone had been listening over the past few years, they HAVE been. But that is not easy while (i) you, the PRESS, wants them to be like Apple, and everything is compared to Apple. After the release this week of the Symbian 3 devices, I saw many reports talking about how rubbish they were? But not a sinlge bit of substantive example? (ii) every market analyst and investor wants them to be like Apple overnight. Nobody wants to see Nokia run a marathon - they all treat this like a sprint!

"It has consistently beaten Apple, and most Android products, handsdown in terms of features."

-> Point proven. There seem to be only 2 things that the technical press are interested in: UI and Apps. Personally I belive that anybody can learn to us a phones UI regardless of friendliness - but if the functionality aint there then it aint. Why does no review of an Android or Apple handset then ever highlight what is *missing*? Instead we get assinine comments in nokia reviews about no innovation which is patently untures given the list of first in the tech sheets that Nokai HAVE bought to the market.

"Nokia is often accused of arrogance, but its current problems sometimes lie in listening to the markets too hard, especially US players, who have little perception or understanding of the firm. When Nokia is told it is a smartphone failure, it accepts that, rather than pointing out that it has maintained its smartphone market share de spite the torrent of new competitors"

-> I read a blog about Nokia from a well known US 'geek' site over the weekend. Frankly, the fundamental premise was that everything US was good - non-US bad. Apple and RIM were brilliant (depsite not even having the same market share as Nokia combined) ... and everything else that was foreign (e.g. HTC and Saumsung) were neatly wrapped in the Android mantle (despite different skins of varying success and almost no native Andorid UIs) as the proof. Nokia would do well to not worry too much and sell a 'world friendly' message regardless of the US market.

"but it has very different go-to market strategies and target user bases to those of Apple."

-> Best comment of all. Nokia has traditionally been driven by the business segment of the market. However, with things like smartphones (and laptops/tablets) coming done in price and no longer being the preserve of business - the features are now driven by the consumer market. Both Apple and 'Android' have been churning out 'consumption' (infotainment) devices ... yet the key business requirement is 'creation' (productivity). I have seen WPM comparisons of touch vs. mechanical keyboard and on *avergae*, typing speed halves on touch screen (and I don't mean the Jo Soaps personal blog, but mutiple subjects using multiple devices). Likewise, I know many colleagues who bought an iPhone, but now are back to aslo carryign their (gasp) Nokia or Blackberry. In most cases, the iPhone has been relegated to being an iPod Touch for entertainment on flights - because you cannot travel and be worrying about running out of power continually and you cannot last out the office for a long time using just an on-screen keyboard. If Apple had bought out an offering with a mechanical keyboard, I would probably have taken the plunge and got an iPhone -- but then I recognise that Apple are producing consumer media conbsumption devices and NOT productivity devices for business. The reality, however, is that almost everybody works, and in Apples target market segment (Yuppies in services dominated markets), there is a need for mobile content creation devices for productivity. Personally I think the segmentation will evolve into a far clearer one with time as the consumer market features feed back into being innovation for the business user, and that is when I think players like Nokia will benefit most with its strong established enterprise relationships.

O2 shocks customers by slashing iPad data allowance

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Not surprised ...

In the mobile industry and not surprised! Most operators data networks are already creaking under the load!

Apple is partially to blame in the sense that unlike the traditional handset manufacturers who knew there were network limitations (because they also sold network kit like Nokia, Moto, SE etc,) and arguably held back to some degree on producing devices that would make those demands on them - Apple went for it regardless of whether the networks could support their device. Of course now it is free for all with large screen mobile data devices being *the* gadget to have and everybody producing them. Gone the phone, enter the mobile browser.

On the other hand, the greedy network operators were quite happy to piggy back on Apple, using Apple's bling to attract new customers in and drive up revenue despite the customer experience being worse.

Its a bit like Apple designing cars that can go 250 and encouraging people to try ... when in reality the roads are pot-holed and unsafe -- except that the roads department also own the car dealerships and happily sell those cars to go on their crap roads.

Smartbook done to death by Apple iPad

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WTF?

How I hate marketing driven gaps ...

Whatever happened to simple segmentation of devices and market needs?

Laptop = Business capable computing tool

Netbook = Mobile 'lightweight' business capable computing tool

Tablet = Mobile infotainment tool

Smartphone = communication tool with lightweight computing capabilities

Personally I cannot see tablets totally replacing computers ... its just that whereas in the past computers were the domain of business, now they have become consumer devices so the consumer market leads and business functionality follows. Apart from a max 1-day trip outside the office, I cannot see a tablet replacing a netbook as the desired lightweight business travel partner.

My guess is once the tablet stuff has settled down, netbooks will re.emerge as 'executive notebooks' for business.

As to how many of the above you own depends on budget and your capabity to manage the synchronisation or belief in 'the cloud'.

Apple TV: Third time unlucky, Mr Jobs

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WTF?

@philipc ... education time ...

Firstly, let me apologise for my adolescent vitriol ... normally I only post in one of those modes and not combined ... especially rude of me seeing that that was your first post ...

Please take a look at the link below and then tell me if Apple is still the 'only company with an installed base of handheld devices with screens'???? ... Or if you really believe THEIR devices are still a differentiator when some of those players actually sell TV's too and in some cases control huge amounts of the content (Sony?) ... in a Rosy Red (err White) Apple tinged world maybe ... but in this world currently ... NO!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/12/gartner-and-idc-agree-the-android-invasions-accelerating-aroun/

Reg article was spot on ... Apple had a chance and failed ... actually I think Apple spent little time and R&D to get this new device out there: both to keep the SP from tumbling (have to satisfy rumours and expectations) and to reap the rewards of knowing that regardless of what it did a certain X million 'fans' would just buy any new device anyway so it had nothing to lose with this. If there is any longer term plan in this for Apple, then this is an interim step or a diversion.

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FAIL

Think Different??? Clearly not at all!!!

"Endless companies have tried to reinvent the TV but only Apple has an installed base of handheld devices with screens."

Really .... only Apple? Is it dark, muffled and reassuringly warm where your head is? Smell even a little ... or do you use Apple blossom scented air freshener? Remember to take your handheld device in with you so you can watch your Apple TV ... personally I'll watch my paid content on my large screen telly using a dedicated remote that lives where it is and not have to be attached at the hip to my 'handheld' device to watch telly!

Porn and pirates hide Android's money maker

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Paris Hilton

I think it is just Apple doing what they do best ...

... user interfaces and marketing ... and that ultimately differentiates the App stores. The one looks like the shopping experience in Camden and the other like Oxford street (except Oxford street isn't quite what it used to be for shopping either just like the Apple App store)!

Paris cos she would prefer the apps on Googles store ... and shopping in Camden!

Google's Wave flop: Spare us the warm fuzzies

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From what I hear from operators ...

MMS uptake is ... on the up ... probably due to a combination of factors.

Interestingly, the one factor driving it is that the rise in smartphones that have supported better mobile email and multimedia experience, has made people aware of the possibilities of content sharing from 'phones'. The irony is that being aware of the idea of sharing content from your phone as a result of better mobile email (attach), people are now realising that in some situations, MMS provides a better solution.

For historical reasons, most peoples phones are still dominated by (surprise) phone numbers and not email addresses attached to all their contacts - and MMS allows the content to still be sent even when you do not have the other persons email address Also, where the recipient does not have push email or is known to not check their email often, MMS is more immediate.

Personally, I think my MMS usage has probably doubled each of the last 4 years ... not sure it will grow much more, but it definitely has a role for sharing pictures quickly of what you are seeing (in the absence of truly reliable mobile broadband for usable real-time streaming!)

Apple fans drool over Liquidmetal widget

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Exclusivity ... for only 11M??? (But I do like the name!)

This sounds more like a marketing exercise on the part of Apple

'Liquid Metal' sounds just like the type of buzz word to get fans (of any sort of device) excited ... that exotic, revolutionary type name ...

The betrayal lies in *only* 11M paid ... if this was so revolutionary or brilliant or .... then surely it is worth more than 11M to Liquid Metal?

Think financial potential of 'brilliant substance' in > 11M consumer electronic devices? Remember, the overall addressable market for consumer electronics is hundreds of times larger than what Apple alone sells in terms of units and devices ... and at even a few cents per device and this would have been worth a LOT more than 11M!

Paying 11M to keep brand loyalty, perception of thought leadership, innovation etc. going seems like a small price for Apple to pay! Marketing and no more than this!

Oracle hates discs, loves tape

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Agreed ...

... it does not make good architectural or business sense* ... I cannot see it flying except for 'enterprise behemoth wannabe' co's where Oracle will price their 'Silo' so aggressively and competitively combined with a healthy does of flattery salesmanship that they feel they cannot refuse ... with Oracle laughing all the way to the payback when their 'prey' is bigger and 'trapped' with them ...

I see the gap in the market, but is there *really* a market in the gap for this that is not adequately addressed today? My gut feel would have been that the course grained, low coupling of SOA architectures is more to blame for system wide latencies than the disk IO and storage? Sounds less like a problem in the market and more a problem of how Oracle will continue to grow.

* exception may be for very very VERY data intensive processing like ... err a Google?

Android surges past iPhone in smartphone sales

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Answer lies in ...

1. Article is about US

2. Symbian (mainly Nokia) never had a strong presence in the US.

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Check this out ...

The following provides Q1 figures from IDC and Gartner. (Usually I would post the links to the original source and not the engadget spin doctoring and shilling, but this is more convenient!)

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/19/idc-and-gartner-award-smartphone-growth-prizes-to-apple-and-goog/

NB - the differences in accounting for this ... units shipped vs actual sales.

For info, here is IDC Q2 figures for all mobiles ... don't seem to have released Q2 for smartphone segment yet ... and not necessarily OS specific ...

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS22441510

Microsoft's ARM deal fuels hope of a chilled-out Xbox

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Welcome

Putting a stop to an Apple 'purchase'?

Could it be that this is designed to make sure that any 'rumoured' purchase of ARM by Apple even more less likely when evaluated by any kind of competition commission?

Seems odd given those old rumours, so either it means MS know they are untrue/unlikely (market take note!) ... or MS knows there was something to it and decided they wanted to secure their slice before it *may happen* and they get cut out of the activity.

Also sounds like a bit of a vote of no confidence in Intel and AMD's prospects in this space.

Nokia latest to feel wrath of Jobs

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Agreed ...

Agree ... I have an E72 and practically sandwiched the phone between my hands covering everything bar the top line so I could see if the signal dropped and over about 2 minutes nothing changed at whgich point i got tired and stopped! But yes, at times when I have had it teathered, I have seen it often, while not being touched, go up and down.

Apple is still in denial and only idiots would agree that the issue with their antenna (touching an unshielded and conductive surface) is a totally different issue from putting lumps of flesh between the antenna and its signal! I recall during the conference somebody asked about the fact that they had 'gorilla gripped' the other phones to make the bars drop, but the iphone could have signal attenuation from a simple 1-finger poke in the right place! It was of course dismissed and the party line that all phones ... blah ... blah ... blah ....

Consumer Reports: 'We were wrong about the iPhone 4'

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What about glass ...

... I thought this was Apple's touchy-feely material of choice?

Android slurps market share from Apple, RIM, Microsoft

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FAIL

@AC 12:43 :-)

"However, let's assume the biggest Apple fans are staying away - that means the millions and millions of people purchasing the phone are new users. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!"

Actually, I think the figures released indicated that 75% of iPhone 4 purchases were upgrades of existing iPhone users. Not quite the 'millions of new custoemrs' ;-)

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/25/apples_recurring_revenue_stream_77_of_iphone_4_sales_were_upgrades.html

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Thumb Up

Spot on ... just wish more people would realise it ...

The big difference, is that in this market place, the investors, press ... punters ... have decided that EVERYBODY should try and be a Mercedes which is harmful in some ways IMHO! Competition where everybody is trying to reinvent themselves as BMW because the markets says that you are 'nothing' otherwise is not ultimately good for innovation - where is the offering for pragmatic day-to-day business? Suddenly it is form over function. If the market recognised this segmentation it would be even better for us all.

Apple denies iPhone 4 antenna glitch, blames inaccurate signal bars

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@DZ-Jay

... and of course nothing silly about direct contact of conductive surfaces with an antenna ... no siree ... no design fault here ... nothing to see ... move along ... and DON'T look at any videos involving any download speeds splummeting in the 'death grip', because the website is also Apple owned (well if it isn't. it will be shortly!) and shouldn't have been displaying the higher speed before the death grip!!!

This is papering over the cracks, which seemingly for people like you who are only interested in bars makes it all work now? Genius for Apple and its flock but still an epic fail!

Microsoft's past - the future to Android's iPhone victory

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@ThomH

Interesting comments. I was talking to some mobile industry analysts the other day and their view was that Apple lives by new product launches. (Makes sense given Apple device price-points giving them a limited market, and the high ratio of repeat sales to a loyal following?) They needed the iPad as a new device to keep growing. You are probably right that the iPhone is part of a strategy for another 2-3 years and then it will be of secondary interest and kept on life support.

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Give me (more) open any day as a prosumer ...

Personally I hate the direction Apple, and now Google, have sent the mobile device market. Beautiful big screens - but dead-duck battery life ... touch screen keyboards - and massively reduced WPM typing ability. Hardly progress!

For both Apple and Google (indirectly through Symbian), everything has moved from productivity, to consumer orientation as a platform for those companies to generate continuous revenue streams. If you buy Apple, you are buying their media delivery platform - Google, their add delivery platform. Of course, this is getting fuzzy with both Google and Apple expanding into adds and media respectively.

What they have done to the mobile device industry is the equivalent to Sony selling televisions that only deliver Sony stable movies!

In this regard, Apple is worse insofar as they have, on numerous occasions, blatently exploited their control to stop other companies from monetizing the platform in areas they see potential for themselves to. Google so far has not, and it seems do not intend to. The closed approach of Apple WILL kill innovation long term as the prime aim is to grow and protect Apple's revenue streams which means doing everything Apple's way and for Apple's benefit regardless of whether it is in the consumers best interest or beneficial to them or not.

Give me (more) open any day!

Google chief: Nexus One was 'so successful, we killed it'

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FAIL

I don't think anybody in the industry would disagree?

... I think most people in the industry understood 100% that the ultimate aim of it was to move Android along and in terms of phone development and the now sales figures and the subsequent slew of 'Nexus Killer' Android phones that came out it succeeded?

Did anybody genuinely think HTC was happy to manufacture a phone for Google so it could eat their breakfast??? Of course not. I buy his logic 100%!

Google: Flash stays on YouTube, and here's why

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Thumb Up

Amidst all the emotion ...

... your use of 'grown-up' probably best illustrates why Flash is here to stay for now amdist all the comments of haters or lovers.

Yeah, it sucks for some things, but it is still the best pragmatic solution for the web until HTML 5 comes of age or some other technology leapfrogs it. For sure Flash will be replaced sometime as nothing lasts forever, but for now the economics (many more significant players than say 5 years ago to keep happy) plus the widespread reach of the internet (desktop browser versions, mobile platforms and the increased usage by previous non-geeks) will all retard dramatic and speedy changes in web technology IMHO compared to the past.

More iPhone 4 angst: fanbois howl over head sensor

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I think sbuk (see above) had the correct fanboy definition ...

... in essence ... anybody who takes their personal self worth from <insert device, software etc.> here from <insert vendor here>. That is what drives their need to lord it over others and behave illogically.

Somehow, Apple seems to manage to create (or attract if it is peronality based?) these types of individuals more successfully (see their bottom line) than others ... that is Apple's true success!

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Troll

Just tried calling and ...

... found I couldn't ... zero bars reception ...

Nokia demos finger flicking exercise for iPhone 4 users

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No difference with my E72 ...?

Mmmm .... first thing I tried after Apple's statement that it affects all phones ... in fact I wrapped my hands around the edges and back of my E72 and watched ... no such value added entertainment of signal degradation to be had! Tried with old Sony Ericsson and Motorola lying around and no degradation either? Personally I have never noticed it with any phone, so I suspect it is a case of 'MAY' happen with other phones - but the antenna design of Apple where you are pysically touching it with a conductive (skin) surface seems to make interference pretty predictable?

I think it probably also depends how strong your signal is to start with, i.e. I suspect a very strong signal may be unafected. Where I am I have 3G and all 5 bars showing currently, so pretty strong.

My guess is your case has less to do with interfering with the antenna (iPhone) as just blocking a weak signal? I suspect that is also why some iPhone 4 users don't see this problem if they are very close to mast with excellent reception. Of course I am no expert.

Southpaws up in arms over iPhone 4

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Happy

Essential now ...

From other reports I have read that very-clever-oh-so-hard-but-oh-so-brittle-GLASS covering even the back of the new iPhone scratches and ships quite easily! I think he will be allowing them now ...

Apple's iOS 4 beams into unprepared world

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Grenade

Trying to be a smarty pants?

... but I like it ;-)

Very valid point. A few of my iPhone fanboy (techy and non-techy) friends (note distinction ... not all my friends who have iPhones are fanboys ... i.e. some treat it as just a 'thing' with pro's and con's compared to the alternatives and not the supreme and objective benchmark of all life!) have pushed these arguments at me constantly over the years effectivly making the argument that MT was not needed and it is indeed better not to have!

For a bit of fun, I must lob this over the fence to them and see what their views are now ...

(Personally, I think MT is essential for device convergence i.e. background IM, switching in and out of mapping etc. ... but for other app usage is probably not. But device convergence is where it is headed and to Apple's credit, they have come to the party ... slowly as with a decent camera and turn-by-turn navigation etc. As a result, Apple's iPhone is eventually coming of age and I may be tempted next time I am due an upgrade.)

Apple reels as Steve Jobs Flashturbates

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But the bigger you are the harder you fall and ...

... oh I cannot be bothered to explain to somebody who has zero clue about business!

Apple bans competing ads from the iPhone

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yes, but thankfully ...

... BMW drivers don't put much effort and time into trying to tell everybody that they should get a BMW too ... nor do they tell everybody that BMW invented the motor vehicle ... and apparently even the wheel!

Oz customs search lappies and mobes for smut

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Thumb Up

Agreed ... But

... spare those stacking supermarket trolleys from being compared to customs officials ... I think they would argue that those who fail at stacking supermarket trolleys become customs officials!

US iPhone ready to be tied down?

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Megaphone

Apple owns that?

News to me ... I had an editable user dictionary on a Sony Ericsson many years ago ... and it was many years ago becaseu I dropped them ages ago ...

RIM's BlackBerry OS 6 may be too late to fend off Apple

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FAIL

Too late to fend off Apple?

... it already is ... Apples momentum slackened off end last year with RIM taking market share and Apple sliding?

Q3 2009

RIM - 8.2m units sold - 19% market share

Apple - 7.4m units sold - 17.1 % market share

Q4 2009

RIM - 10.7m units sold - 19.6% market share

Apple - 8.7m units sold - 16% market share

I think the sales analysis (thanks IDC) show that Apple's stealing market share from Nokia and RIM peaked in Q3 2009 and then ran out of steam in Q4 2009.

Of course you can argue it is unfair as Apple has a one product offering - but the truth is Apple lives and dies by selling new high value niche products and for them to continue to grow market share here at the expense of Nokia and RIM is by releasing their next iPhone.

But to suggest that RIM *has* to do something to fend off Apple is to argue against the stats (and numerous market reports) that indicate that they ALREADY ARE ... since Q3 2009, RIM (& Nokia) have been growing market share and Apple faltering in their march.

Nokia: digital SLRs are doomed

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DSLR purchases are also subjects to demand ...

... and some of that demand may be changing. For example, increasingly media is no longer relying on pros (journalists or photographers) for their content and this includes photos and video.

For a breaking story, first to the market footage of an event taken on a camerphone is going to outweigh not having had a 'reporter' with a DSLR who happened to be in the right place at the right time to provide people with a superb shot of the event. Everybody is slowly becoming a reporter.

Also, with media and content increasingly online, bandwidth becomes more of an issue and some of the advantages of pictures taken well with a DSLR are negated after being heavily compressed.

Physics says camera-phones will never match DSLR's unless they beef up significantly - but they may replace demand for them.

Apple uncloaks deep details of its 11 iPad apps

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Cart ... horse ...

"THAT will be what sells the iPad, now whether it has an SDCARD adapter or a VGA port hardly anyone will use sticking out the side." *

* still to be proven ... at the moment what sells it is nothing other than the Apple brand and marketing ... what buys it is the legion of fanbois with more money than sense to whom 'retard' probably does apply given it is totally unproven, seen etc.

The discerning will wait to see proper reviews, maybe touch and play with one in a shop and then decide if they wish to part with their hard earned cash.

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I'm starting to understand ...

the vitriol ... its caused by the opposite of what you say i.e. the wait and see if it flies ... its the 'its already stratospheric' that gets people ire.

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Preferences ...

I pretty much agree with your sentiment ... but let's just remember that as long as there are multiplte tastes, needs, wants etc. in the world - there will be multiple products pandering to different tastes and I suspect that there is a market where the iPad makes the most sense.

Note to Apple Fanbois ... if you were not so smug about everything Apple and remembered that Apple PC's, phones etc. are still the minority of 'gadgets' in the world and and that because YOU like Apple kit, it does not represent an objective benchmark, then you would not be called 'retards' as in the above post.

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So + ....

Irrelevant ... I think Jobs already declared that nobody would read for long enough for that to become an issue. Apart from the fact that that comment misses a whole lot of points regarding battery life and comparitive advantages of say Kindle as a reading device akin to a book that can be flung in a backpack and caried around ona roadtrip for 'the right moment' - it is also a sad comment on the fact that while aiming to capture a share of the ebook market, Jobs will probably do a good job of part killing it by 'weaning' readers off and onto other forms of entertainment ... pull my finger ... again ... again ...

Nokia sharpens Vision with Novarra buy

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Megaphone

Negativitiy of Nokia not totally founded ...

Taking a look at IDC figures, Nokia lost market share overall from '08 to '09 for smartphones, but certainly grew market share in Q3 and Q4 '09.

In fact, both RIM and Nokia gained market share in Q4 '09 at Apple's expense - so clearly the 20.8M Nokia smartphone buyers and the 10.7M RIM buyers must be deluded not to have swelled the ranks of the 7.4M iPhone buyers!

I think Apple have a superb product, but it is not without its faults and not everybody wants a million apps on their phone - some of us spend most of the day on calls and emails and not playing with infotainment - and in that case there are some cracking alternatives with decent mechanical qwerty keyboards and batteries that don't need 'mommying' and great prodcutivity functionality around communications whose only fault is using a D-Pad and not a touch-screen! (In some cases even fewer 'clicks' than the iPhone! ... just not as pretty!)

Just as being a 1 product (phone) vendor is to Apple's benefit in terms of innovation, marketing, focus etc., it is also its challenge as its iPhone has 'a market' segment (contrained by needs, budgets and perferences) and will need to 're-invent' itself with a new model to keep this market share whereas RIM and Nokia can offer many different alternatives to cater to different needs, budgets and wants.

What I get tired of is the (mainly US where Nokia has had very low market share) analysis that says that Apples success and products represent an 'objective' industry benchmark of what handset manufacturers should do. Personally I would be pretty annoyed if Nokia changed some of its functionality in my current handset 'just to be like Apple' ... likewise, if Apple stuck a qwerty keyboard on a device and gave it a decent/replaceable battery, I would consider changing.

Chip maker to take on iPad with $99 tablet

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Grenade

So time to buy shares in the 'eyesight industry' ...

... seems e-ink devices are just not cool enough and everybody is going to trash their eyes even more than the usual 8 hours a day in front of the computer as they now stare even longer at light sources to consume their traditionally printed matter ...

If I suffered from eye-strain at universtiy just from ploughing through reading lists and textbooks, imagine how much worse it is going to be once this is done staring at a TFT!

More doubt tossed onto iPad numbers

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You are right and as blind as Apple marketing want you to be

"Apple know how to shake things up"

Spot on ... this is actually Apples biggest strength. Their target market seems to be those who have enbraced modern media and can spread the word ... their marketing is top ... and they own a significant share of media casue Apple stories sell ...

"witness the number of other manufacturers who NOW are building a tablet style PC, yet until Apple did, they showed no interest at all..."

Mate - where have you been ... only seeing Apple's bombardment of marketing as per above comment? Firstly, the iPad is NOT a tablet style PC ... it is an entertainment device and not a PC replacement device bar a few functions. Secondly, there are plenty of manufacturers who have had similar devices out for years with varying success ... they are just not cool like Apple, so suddenly Apple has everybody where they want them shouting from the rooftop again 'WE INVENTED IT AND EVERYBODY IS COPYING US'. Don't buy the story. The iPad may be the best (nobody *actually* knows yet despite the fact that fanbois will assure you it is) ... but it is not the first ...

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WTF?

According to analysts ...

"The kind of nimrods who buy all that other crap, count them in their millions!"

I saw a report from one analyst indicating that they believe *any* new Apple product has a 'guaranteed' sale of 6M units to 'fanbois' ('fabois' = my words - they were a little more eloquent in describing a loyal fan base of 6M who would buy *any* new Apple product 'blind' ...)

Asus will hit e-pad market this year

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FAIL

That all assumes tablets are a good thing!

If I recall, one of the biggest problems with tablet uptake was the 'ergonomics' of use i.e. how do you hold them to use them. Holding with one hand means you only have one hand to drive ... so then you palce them flat on a surface and have a non-optimal viweing angle ... so then you prop them up ... etc. And once you no longer treat them as 'light and easy to hold' but place / prop them up on surfaces to type - then you may as well have a proper keyboard and seperate screen.

I am sure the iPad will sell to the fanbois who pre-order and those with money for a 'gadget', but why Asus thinks that the shortcomings (assume: camera, multitasking, lack of open connectivity like USB, expandable storage etc.) will address this fundamental issue is beyond me ...

Apple turns the flamethrower on Android

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Alien

Your perception of Voice Recognition is contrained by the present ...

@Gulfie

You are thinking within the confines of the present ... what if the device is intelligent enough to understand context and can recognise its owners voice ...? We are talking the *future* here ...

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Future or present?

"Touch screen devices are the future of computing"

They are the present of computing as a 'fad' and have just as many 'cons' as 'pros' when compared to buttons (I for one prefer buttons) ... I think the future is probably more innovative than that like fast, accurate and reliable speech recognition etc.

Apple is suing HTC

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... Nokia picks on us, so we pick on ...

HTC ...

Was it not just last month that Nokia took Apple to the ITC in the hopes it would prevent Apple being able to import the devices as a way of upping their little litigation game ...

Seems Apple's lawyers have learned from this 'salvo' and decided to pick on Google via HTC in a similar manner.

I guess HTC market share in the US is bigger than Nokia's and the threat from Google greater?

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