[vimeo 68152701 w=640 h=360]Gizmodo put together a fairly quick run through of the new iOS 7. I’m surprised this is so divisive. There are plenty in the Apple camp that love the new design, but there are just as many that seem to hate it. Unlike Herman,…
June 12, 2013
iOS 7 Walkthrough and Demo
August 8, 2012
Valve to Sell Non-Gaming Software on Steam in September
This seems like a significant move for the video game company:
Valve is opening up Steam to non-gaming software, the company announced today, bringing applications ranging from “creativity to productivity” to the digital distribution platform. The first software titles will be released on September 5th.
Non-gaming software sold via Steam will take advantage of the platform’s Steamworks features, which include simplified installation, auto-updating, and the ability to save work to the Steam Cloud for cross-platform access from multiple computers.
This could potentially be a real kick in the nuts to Microsoft’s planned Windows 8 store.
August 6, 2012
Apple’s Next Ad
In light of the sense of triumph and excitement over the Mars Curiosity Rover, doesn’t the photo above seem like the perfect ad for Apple?
Nothing says “get shit done with our computers” like a group of human beings using Macbooks to land a nuclear powered truck onto a planet 155 million miles away by lowering it to the surface of said planet with a rocket-powered sky-crane on a 14 minute delay from inside a control room. [via theloop]
July 25, 2012
Apple Releases OS X Mountain Lion
The difference between Apple and Microsoft? Apple announced OS X Mountain Lion in February and today you can buy the update for $20.
I feel like we’ve been waiting for Windows 8 to release for at least a year. It strikes me that Microsoft’s biggest problem is they aren’t nimble enough to compete in the current consumer tech landscape. It’s not that they don’t have a vision — they do — it’s just the game is moving faster than they are currently playing. They have the enterprise tech and money to sustain themselves, but what if their bet on Windows 8 fails?
That’s probably another story for another day. As for today, the two reviews you need to read regarding Apple’s new OS are from John Gruber and John Siracusa.
July 13, 2012
Police Pull Over and Stop Google’s Driverless Car in Washington, D.C.
Well, this presents an interesting dilemma. What happens when police pull over a car driven by a computer, as the case may be in Washington, D.C.? I can’t really find any news stories about this incident, but I would love to hear what the hell the cops had to say and what the human passenger had to say and if the Google car ended up going all HAL 9000 on the police and refused to pull over. So many questions! [via marginalrevolution]
June 23, 2012
Three Screens and a Cloud
Microsoft is finally putting the pieces in place for its “three screens and a cloud” approach to computing. It’s the same one Apple is successfully taking, obviously, and one that Google is currently struggling how to crack. We won’t know how Microsoft fairs until all of its Windows 8 products are released, as well as the next-generation Xbox.
June 20, 2012
The Next Microsoft Era
Joshua Topolsky breaks down what Microsoft’s Surface Tablet means for the company in the grand scheme of things:
In fact, the entire tablet was designed in-house by Microsoft’s teams, and if you believe what was said in the presentation yesterday, design and functionality in hardware has suddenly become a big deal in Redmond.
That’s a big shift, and it’s an important one. The announcement of the Surface shows that Microsoft is ready to make a break with its history — a history of hardware partnerships which relied on companies like Dell, HP, or Acer to actually bring its products to market.
That may burn partners in the short term, but it could also give Microsoft something it desperately needs: a clear story.
The Surface Tablet, which if it is as good as MSFT is making it seem, will be a full-fledged replacement for laptops. It’s also a tablet. Everyone who has an iPad still uses a laptop for certain computing needs. Microsoft is basically saying you only need one device to do both.
June 19, 2012
Microsoft Surface Tablets
Microsoft is getting into the tablet game. It’s called Surface. There’s even a coy intro video that doesn’t show off much, does create a sense of excitement. Yay for marketing.
My only two questions are: who will buy this over an iPad and how are other computer companies going to feel about Microsoft undercutting their business model?
June 17, 2012
The Verge Goes Inside Vizio’s PC Efforts
The PC industry has basically resorted to being an industry that copies Apple. Obviously, that’s not entirely true, but, just look at the rash of “ultrabooks” and tell me those aren’t a response to the success of Apple’s Mac Air? I had no idea Vizio was an American company. I just assumed they were the latest South Korean manufacturer following in the steps of LG and Samsung. [theverge]
June 15, 2012
Competitive Wikipedia Searching is Strangely Intense
WikiWars in fairly simple competitive endeavor: two people start on the same page and try to be the first to click available links to a second randomly chosen page. I’ve never heard of the game, but apparently it’s popular for bored high school kids to play in computer labs.
Makes sense.
The Gregory Brothers put together a little video demonstrating a match in progress, which is strangely compelling and intense for a trivial thing. Under the right circumstances and substances and with the right color commentators, I could totally see myself getting sucked into a WikiWars marathon on the History Channel. Just sayin’.
Even better, you can play WikiWars online for those inclined. [via reddit]
May 30, 2012
Chrome OS gets a Refresh and New Hardware
I love the idea of Google’s Chrome OS, but I just don’t see how it’s better than a regular, old Windows/Mac desktop, or what the test case would be for using one when the iPad exists? I would love to test one of these out for a week just to see if it could function as my primary machine. Still, if this forces Microsoft to make Windows easier, lighter, and more manageable, then I’m all for it.
Anyway, Google made some major tweaks to the OS and partnered with Samsung to improve the hardware running it.
If Chrome OS can get some native applications to run on its framework, then we might be talking, but why would anyone pay more than $300 just to have a browser? That makes no sense.
More at: The Verge | NYTimes | Lifehacker
May 22, 2012
In Praise of VLC
I tell everyone I know to use VLC if they are looking to play videos on a computer. It’s quite simply one of the best and most useful computer applications available.
Playing videos on a computer hasn’t been novel for about 20 years, but playing the videos you want is still oddly difficult in 2012. The video players included with Windows and Mac OS play a sharply limited number of video formats due to crippling licensing restrictions — to include the ability to play or create videos in, say, h.264 format, Microsoft and Apple have to pay royalties to the people who hold the patents on its codec technology. This has created a somewhat embarrassing gap in the capabilities of the two major operating systems: out of the box, Windows 7 and Mac OS X Lion can’t play some of the most popular video codecs in the world. (The next version of Windows, due later this year, won’t even support DVD playback. Luckily, VLC does that too.)
VLC’s success is, in a way, a powerful expression of the strangeness of software patents. The app uses open-source video playback and encoding libraries, which may well be in violation of quite a few software patents, but their volunteer creators profess (likely feigned) ignorance on the subject and can point to years of undisturbed operation as evidence that it doesn’t really matter — as long as you don’t charge for your software. VLC’s legal status is best described, I think, as fine enough.
Actually, VLC gets away with patent license issues because they are based in France and French law does not recognize software as being patentable. By that logic, patent licenses aren’t applicable under French law. Doesn’t make what they do right, but nobody really seems to care all that much.
Trust me on this: VLC is absolutely necessary for playing video if you own a computer. It’s free so go get it.
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