While I may recommend the iPhone to the majority of people who ask, Android is still my mobile operating system of choice. Google has created a truly amazing and innovative platform, and because it is open-source anyone can tweak it and customize it. Even devices that weren’t meant for Android, such as my HP TouchPad, can run the mobile OS beautifully thanks to dedicated third-party developers. As I spend more and more time with an iPhone, however, I realize that my love for open-source is slowly beginning to fade. While I used to believe open-source would play a huge role in pushing Android ahead of the competition, which it did, I now believe it may end up being the thing that kills it. More →
I sat at my computer in amazement a little earlier. Most of me knew that RIM is too damaged and too slow to pivot, and just too out of touch with its customers to know it actually has a chance. But, there was this small part of me that was genuinely excited for BlackBerry World’s announcements. Then I saw Thorston Heins start off the company’s most crucial keynote ever with Salesforce and Cisco. More →
I saw from the inside and outside how RIM transformed the mobile landscape, and how the company even battled its own inner demons throughout the years. Here are my thoughts on the company’s worst quarter in five years:
RIM grew incredibly fast. It grew faster than the company knew how to manage, and RIM slowly — and then quickly — slipped as a result. This is the company that used to make users choose between a device with Wi-Fi and no GPS, or GPS and no Wi-Fi, just to have two products on the market instead of one. This is the company that refused to take the consumer market seriously for a number of years. This is the company that couldn’t see the future when it was right in front of them. More →
Android phones have never been as impressive as they are today. They have never been as responsive, as slim or as powerful. Their displays have never been more vivid or more stunning. Their data speeds have never been as fast. Competition is now hotter than ever before in the smartphone market and consumers are reaping the benefits. At its core, each and every new smartphone that launches is an engineering feat that simply could not have existed a few short years ago. And yet as amazing as the current crop of smartphones might be, there has probably never been a worse time in Android’s brief but storied history for savvy users to buy a smartphone. More →
Apple, your new lock screen is terrible. It’s great that you want to make the camera even more accessible in iOS 5.1 since a lot of people didn’t know the double-tap trick, but you’ve compromised the usability of something as simple and vital as unlocking a phone. You have altered the iconic slide-to-unlock layout, and there’s no option to disable the new camera shortcut on the lock screen. Visually, an off-center slide-to-unlock mechanism isn’t appealing at all. It’s too narrow for the space and I’ve tapped the camera button by mistake more than a few times trying to unlock the phone. Give us a setting to disable this and bring back the old option of double-tapping the home button please.
Apple is a company that somehow manages to churn out an above-average amount of beautiful products, fantastic software and class-leading services. When it misses, however, it misses big. MobileMe is one example. Ping is a better one. A third example is Apple’s Genius recommendation engine, which seeks to present App Store users with a list of applications they may enjoy based on their app download history. Right now, Genius is awful, but Apple’s recent acquisition of a company called Chomp may see things change in the near future. Read on for more. More →
Just over five years ago, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, a device that would change the world forever. The Macworld Conference & Expo keynote in 2007 is one that will go down in history. With its announcement, Apple reinvented the smartphone and put converged handsets on mainstream consumers’ radar. The iPhone seamlessly integrated music, email, a phone, a camera and Internet access all into one great device. I personally never had an interest in smartphones until the Macworld announcement, and countless others can likely make the same claim. There was just one problem, however… Apple partnered exclusively with Cingular in the U.S. for the release of the iPhone. At the time, Cingular was the biggest carrier in the U.S. with 58 million customers — to show how rapidly the market has grown in recent years, the nation’s largest carrier Verizon reported having 108.7 million subscribers at the end of 2011 — but I was in no way interested in moving to a new carrier and therefore I was forced to pass on the iPhone. More →
I love my iPhone. In fact, I’ve loved every iPhone Apple has launched since the first model was unveiled in 2007. Slowly but surely, Apple has introduced new features and eliminated upon almost every major gripe people had with iOS to push the limits of what we expect from a modern smartphone, and also to keep the platform on par with or even ahead of the competition. Copy and paste, MMS, background apps, multitasking, notifications, folders and much more have been added over time. There is one thing that makes me hate my iPhone every single day though, and I hope Apple is going to address it soon. I need more control over my alerts. More →
Research In Motion hasn’t just had a difficult time innovating since the iPhone was first introduced, the company has had trouble innovating ever since its product started to morph into something more than a simple email messaging device. RIM has always been behind the curve with regard to technology in some ways. It was still making devices with black and white displays when other manufacturers were launching devices with vibrant full-color screens. RIM was one of the last manufacturers to launch an EDGE device and it was also one of the last manufacturers to include a camera in its devices. The vendor consistently offered devices without GPS or Wi-Fi, and without a functional web browser. The problem with Research In Motion is not just that the company has failed to adapt or plan for the future, it’s that RIM hasn’t been able to accurately predict not only what the mobile landscape was going to look like down the road, but also what its customers want in a BlackBerry handset. Unfortunately, judging from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t see much changing with new CEO Thorsten Heins. More →
Media tablets powered by Google’s Android operating system have for the most part been unable to capture consumers’ interest. With just a few exceptions, sales of individual Android tablet models have been extremely low by all accounts. Amazon’s new Kindle Fire is one such exception thanks to an attractive price point and tight integration with Amazon services. Google has seemingly taken note of Amazon’s success, and a new report suggests the company is working on a budget-priced slate of its own that will launch in the next few months. Read on for more. More →
Apple’s aggressive patent strategy has hit a few speed bumps lately. The Cupertino, California-based company won an injunction on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, but the ban was recently overturned. A German court then sided with Motorola in a retaliatory lawsuit, ordering an injunction on Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and declaring that European Apple subsidiary Apple Sales International pay damages related to the infringement. Finally, earlier this week, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that HTC devices were not infringing on three Apple-owned patents. The ITC determined that a number of HTC devices did infringe on one Apple patent, but the Taiwan-based vendor already made it clear that a simple change will allow it to avoid the related injunction. Apropos, Apple’s legal team has decided to expand its efforts beyond patents covering technology integral to the function of its mobile products. Now, it will also attack competitors over their smartphone and tablet cases. Read on for more. More →
Apple is working on solutions that will help to improve the text input experience on its iOS devices. The Cupertino, California-based company has been discovered to be building an enhanced version of its autocorrect feature, the beginnings of which are currently hidden within the publicly available version of iOS 5, that adds suggested words above the iOS keyboard as users type. The functionality works much like the solutions currently found in Android or Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, and it is viewed by many as a much-needed addition to Apple’s mobile OS. Read on for more. More →
