Breaking the Speed of Light

Point a laser pointer at the moon and you’ll probably break the speed of light. Kinda.

As seen on Devour. I love Devour.

Siri looks really well thought out

Through sites like this and this I’m beginning to think that Siri — the new ‘personal assistant’ on the iPhone 4S — is incredibly well done. Those sites — whilst humourous — illustrate the breadth of things that Siri understands.

Whilst Scott Forstall demoed it well during the keynote, he obviously didn’t touch on everything it could do. It looks like there’s much more to explore.

My favourite at the moment is this one.

iOS 5 lets you change the colour of your calendars

“Finally.”

It ain’t about math, Microsoft

Note to Microsoft: people don’t buy Macs because they’re more expensive. You’re missing the point.

Whilst I applaud Microsoft for getting most of the comparisons there or thereabouts — let’s not talk about comparing the 11″ MacBook Air to a Toshiba netbook though — I can’t help feeling that the only drum Microsoft has to beat is ‘PCs are cheaper than Macs’. Whilst this site proves that notion is factually correct, for me it misses the point of why people choose PCs or Macs.

People don’t buy Macs because they’re more expensive. Microsoft should focus more on why people buy Macs over PCs other than cost.

• What about saying PCs are more secure than Macs?
• How about saying PCs are faster than equivalent Macs?
• What if you were to push the point about PCs being more serviceable/upgradeable than Macs?
• What about the range of software available?
• Games?

When you start to think of all the ways computers & software can be compared, it’s rather depressing if all you have to beat is the cost drum.

If we’re talking about cost…

As an aside, all of this is ironic if you think about it. Microsoft don’t make PCs. They make software. So if we’re going to boil it down to cost:

• The cheapest Windows 7 you can buy: $199
• Mac OS X Leopard: $129

• Cheapest version of Office for Mac: $149
• Pages, Keynote & Numbers for Mac: $71.97 ($23.99 each)

Even if you add in the cost of a Snow Leopard upgrade ($29), OS X is still around $41 cheaper. And, don’t forget, we’re comparing the most basic version of Windows 7 here, so it’s unlikely to be apples for apples (if you’ll pardon the pun). Apple’s productivity suite is less than half the price of Microsoft’s.

PCs might be cheaper, but that doesn’t mean they’re better. Microsoft should be focussing on features, benefits, speed, security, technological advances — in addition to cost — if they’re to make a compelling argument.

Who gave you permission to do this?

Dear Photoshop,

When I plug in an external hard drive — one with lots of precious data & backups – please do not assume you can just use it for your own purposes. Ask me first.

Cheers.

History Vault in Windows 8

Winrumors.com:

Microsoft is currently working on a new feature for Windows 8 named History Vault, WinRumors has learned. The feature will allow Windows 8 users to backup files and data automatically using the Shadow Copies function of Windows. According to one person familiar with the company’s plans, the backup feature will include the ability to restore to a specific time or date on the system. Users will also be able to select files and restore them to different timestamps.

What I find interesting is Microsoft’s choice of name for this feature. A ‘vault’ is something that’s purposely hard to get into. Not a feature I’d immediately associate with an automated backup feature.

IDC predicts Windows Phone will top Apple’s iOS in market share by 2015

AppleInsider:

A new forecast of the global smartphone platform market from research firm IDC has predicted that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform will see a resurgence in the next four years, overtaking Apple’s iOS platform which powers the iPhone.

I have a hard time believing that iOS penetration is going to decline between now & 2015. There’s more iOS powers than just the iPhone.

Do these figures include iPod Touches & iPads?

Amen

Josh Clark, on mobile apps vs HTML5 web apps:

Fact is, we all use both. According to Comscore, 37 percent of mobile users browse the web, and 35 percent use downloaded apps. Presumably those are basically the same people, since about 35 percent of mobile users have smartphones. So it’s not that one is winning over the other in terms of usage; we use both.

This is basically what I’ve been meaning to write for weeks (lesson learned; get off one’s arse sooner). There’s been too much hyperbole recently about native vs web and precious little about appropriate, technology-agnostic solutions.

Attention to Detail

The iPad guided tour videos on Apple’s website are great. Notice that the clock on the iPad shows 9.41am in every single video.

“The commercial deal took us a day”

An interesting look into the negotiations between Apple & Verizon, following yesterday’s announcement:

“We probably worked six or nine months on the technical side of this and saw we could make this work [...] Then we did the commercial side. The commercial deal took us a day.”

I’ll bet Verizon said ‘yes please’ a lot during those negotiations.