The story behind the fake Google Switch
Philosophizing about a school project
The ultimate new phone
It had a touch screen that didn’t require a stylus, service-side processor power (whatever that is, but sounds really cool) and some ingenious ways for finger-touch text input. So they developed a concept phone by using some 3D designing software they used for their study and by making a picture of a table and a screenshot of their own phone’s screen they pulled together a nice mock-up. Now they only had to come up with a name and given the total switch their phone would make in people’s perception of a mobile phone they decided that it had to be named Switch. But while they were working on their project, they were also thinking of sending their concept phone to some leading tech blogs to see how hard it was to fool those guys. They only needed to associate their concept with a big company. Apple? Google? Microsoft?Cupertino, California
Get attention
The hype they wanted
Ideas are open knowledge
“Ideas are open knowledge. Don’t claim ownership. They’re not your ideas anyway, they’re someone else’s. They are out there floating by on the ether. You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.”
Work ethic
MySpace + Blackberry Addict?
At 12:01 AM EDT on the 13th of November, MySpace is releasing their much anticipated mobile application for the BlackBerry platform. You can download it here from your desktop or navigate here from your BlackBerry browser.
HTC MAX 4G officially announced, world’s first GSM / WiMAX phone
The previously-seen T8920 has turned out to be the MAX 4G, an 800 x 480 monster with 8GB of Flash on board, two cameras, an FM radio, GPS, WiFi, triband EDGE, and — most importantly — WiMAX support, making it the first GSM / WiMAX handset anywhere in the world. It’ll be launching on Scartel’s Yota network in Russia, and if you have friends cool enough to have a MAX 4G of their own, calls between the two of y’all will automatically be routed over the WiMAX airwaves using VoIP. A launch date hasn’t been announced, but unless you’re in Russia, there’s probably not much point in even bothering to lust after this one. If you insist, though, you can check out a couple additional shots of the phone over at Engadget Mobile.
Google Chat now offers Video, Audio Chat
The features, which require a plugin [available for both PC and Mac OS X] allow you to initiate video and audio chats from within the web browser. You can even expand the size of the video chat, and thanks to the feature being based on a number of widely used standards, you should in theory be able to chat with a fairly large number of contacts who don’t need to be using the web interface [it's also worth noting that one-way video and audio chat is also possible].
Unfortunately, the feature isn’t available just yet: the Googlers say the feature has only just begun rollout – however you can visit the Gmail videochat page to download the browser plugin and get ready for your account to be enabled in the next few days.
Acer’s Aspire One A110X "Black Edition"
My verdict: Would you pay more for a colour? We’ll see.
On this day, 25 years ago.. Windows 1!
Blackberry Storm: $219.99 w/ 2 year contract
5 Basic Things Windows 7 still Can’t get right
While I’m generally pleased with Windows 7 so far , I’ve found myself shaking my head every now and then. In some instances it’s obvious that Microsoft has been paying attention. Other times, not so much.
I’ve noticed five issues so far that, though minor, leave me wondering if Microsoft is going to be able to pull off a really great OS by its projected mid-2009 release.
.ZIP Files
Windows 7 still takes forever to extract files from a zip archive, which leaves me dumbfounded. An 18.4mb zip containing only two files took me almost 23 seconds to extract using the right-click context menu’s extract all option. Using 7zip’s context menu extraction, the same operation took less than three seconds.
Zip files have been supported natively since Windows XP. Seven years later, there’s still no improvement. Third party applications are so much better at handling .zip files it makes me wonder why Microsoft bothered adding support in the first place.
FTP Support
Is it really too much to ask that a Network Place I’ve created actually behave like a local drive? Plenty of free applications that I use can do it with no problem, so why not Windows? When I tried to edit a text file on my FTP server, Windows 7 tried to open it in Internet Explorer – which instantly had a fit of colossal proportions. Multiple windows spawned and re-spawned when I closed them. Ultimately, killing the iexplore.exe process put a stop to it.
Shouldn’t an FTP location behave like any other network place, such as an SMB share? If Windows can’t handle that, maybe FTP shouldn’t be an option.
Adjusting the Clock
This used to be so easy, and now it’s not. Now when I double click, the pretty little calendar/clock applet appears and hides. Why? I understand that my clock is supposed to synchronize automatically, but what if it doesn’t? With XP, double clicking the time took me directly to a screen that allowed me to change it. Now it takes a right click, left click, and then a click on another button.
Well, at least the UAC prompt is gone. Yay.
Network Connection Repair
Once again, this was such a simple operation in XP. Right click the system tray icon, choose repair, and wait a few seconds. It worked well, too. Vista introduced the god-awful diagnose and repair system. It takes forever and it hasn’t solved any additional issues for me – and Windows 7′s version is just as bad.
If diagnose is here to stay, maybe the solution is to present both options right up front. I for one would be quite happy to just have the old repair option back.
Managing Network Connections
The connect to menu in XP is configurable, and I like being able to expand it. Vista dropped that option, and it’s still gone in Window 7. I also can’t right click a system tray icon and view all connections like I could in XP. I’ve got to go through the network and sharing center first.
It’s needlessly overcomplicated. Getting rid of little conveniences like this is no way to improve an operating system.
Am I alone in this? If you’re running Windows 7 do these things – or other little things – frustrate you, too? Share with your fellow readers in the comments!
China’s wasteland of toxic consumer electronics revealed
As someone living in Hong Kong, I feel pretty guilty myself over always buying the latest gadgets and computers.
10 Awesome Windows 7 Features
10. Easier and better wireless networking. Windows 7 takes a little from XP and a little from Vista, and rolls it all into a neat little package. Connection switching only requires two clicks and it can be done right from the system tray icon. Windows 7 also detects three more access points near my home than XP and Vista, and the connections to my work and home routers resume instantly when my laptop wakes. 9. Device stage. Right now, Windows treats multifunction devices like separate entities.This really doesn’t make much sense: is your all-in-one three separate pieces of hardware? No? WIth device stage, you’ll see only a single device in the control panel which you can then explore to access its multiple capabilities. To see it in action, check out Engadget’s video from WinHEC. 8. Better battery life. Engadget talked about it, and I’ve been seeing it in action. By managing wireless lan and bluetooth radios more intelligently and tweaking the OS kernel to allow both lower CPU frequencies and higher idle times, Windows 7 yields a gain of 11-15%. The stats from my MSI Wind jive: its 6-cell battery lasts almost 40 minutes longer. 6. Improved UAC. Vista’s UAC is brutal, nagging like the email solictors that keep trying to push Viagra on me. On any Vista install I’ve used for more than a few days, I’ve ended up disabling it entirely. It should have been a good thing, helping to prevent accidental and unwanted changes to the system. 5. The new taskbar. There have been a number of improvements, including re-ordering icons, better visual task tips, and a more customizable system tray. Windows Media Player’s tip view even provides basic playback controls automatically – no need for a special taskbar mode. The icon only mode is also a welcome change: it helps reduce taskbar clutter and pinning simplifies access to my favorite apps. 4. WinMin. We haven’t seen much of it yet, but we know it’s there somewhere. The promise of instant-on features in Windows 7 is a big deal for mobile users. As a netbook owner, I know I’d love to be able to boot a minimal shell with access to essential apps like my web browser and IM client. 3. Libraries. Hey, they work for Media Player, so why not make them a part of the OS? Windows 7′s libraries provide a powerful addition to Explorer. They simplify file sharing, speed browsing and searching, and improve organization. They’re a fantastic way to group related content regardless of where it’s stored – especially if you suck at maintaining a logical folder setup like me. 2. PC Safeguard. Vista is a bit better at staying virus-free than Windows XP (I say this because my customers with Vista don’t come in with SmitFraud infections nearly as often).
Enough mucking about: here are ten Windows 7 features that are genuinely worth getting excited about.
Device Stage will improve integration with cell phones, PDAs, personal media players, cameras, and more – and it’s a sign that Microsoft is more concerned about simplicity and ease of use than they were with Vista.
7. Network file sharing is wicked fast. While I haven’t pulled out the stopwatch just yet, I do know this: files accessed from the machine I use to serve my repair apps open in a flash since I installed Windows 7. With XP and Vista, there was always a momentary hiccup after issuing a run command (like \\service\spyware) to connect to a share.
Now, the hiccup is gone. With the same networking hardware, my SMB shares now open almost instantly.
UAC in Windows 7 is much smarter. If I initiate something manually, I’m not prompted. If I tell Windows once that an application is trusted, that’s it – no more nags. Faith and begorah, I don’t have to authorize my mouse click on ridiculously simple things like change date and time any more.
Windows 7 has taken restricted user accounts to the next level: by enabling PC Safeguard, you can force all changes a user makes to be discarded at log off. That means shortcuts, downloads, documents, temp files – everything just disappears. It’s easy enough for the average home user to configure, and provides an additional layer of defense against malware and reckless computer use.
And the best thing to look forward to about Windows 7: once it’s finally released, you’ll only be reading about it for another eight years.
