… Tomorrow, the first one goes on sale: the Samsung Series 5 ($500 with cellular, $430 Wi-Fi only).
So what is the Chromebook concept? Assumption 1: These days, you can get online almost anywhere. Assumption 2: Google’s free online software can do almost everything regular software can do — e-mail (Gmail), Web browsing (Chrome), chat (Google Talk), photos (Picasa), word processing, spreadsheets, slide shows (Google Docs). …
I liked the concept when I first heard of it.
Unfortunately, after a week trying to use this thing as his primary computer, David Pogue was ready to toss it like a Frisbee.
… The company (Microsoft) can take some small encouragement in the fact that the overall share for mobile devices is still small. That means it’s possible to overcome the late start. Android proved that a newcomer can make a dent, going from zero (literally) to roughly a third of the share of iOS over the past two years. …
I finally saw one of the new Microsoft stores in California, by the way. Surprisingly well done. I was impressed.
Tech pundit Leo Laporte bet fading tech pundit John Dvorak it would sell 5 million units in 2010. It sold nearly 15 million, even more than Apple projected.
Steve Jobs says 2011 will be the Year of the iPad 2.
He’s right. But competitors will begin to catch up as they have in smart phones. Catching up to Apple in profits will take years longer.
Eventually Google Droid devices will surpass Apple in sales and popularity. The only question is, how long will that take?
related – The best take on the iPad 2 launch I’ve read was by the unofficial blogger for Apple, John Gruber – The Chair
Note: The Kindle sold about 10 million units in 2010. But it’s really not an iPad competitor. Many folks have both a tablet and Kindle.
But you kind of have to hold the iPad 2 to really get the redesign. It’s thinner by a third, plus its edges taper to a thin line of metal. It’s almost inconceivable that this thing you’re holding is a multicore tablet computer. The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty … but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor instead of by Motorola.
If you’re an annoying Apple fanboy, get the iPad 2.
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I’m an annoying Apple fanboy and there are some things superior with the Xoom.
… The Xoom is not a tablet you would hand to your mother; it is cold and complex and industrial and vaguely foreboding, the look and feel resembling a glossed up slice of Blade Runner. Everything is black, with glowing blue accents. …
… January brought a spate of stories about Google’s search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. …
I’ll believe Google has fixed the problem when eHow is not on the first 100 pages of results.
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In a Bing search, eHow was #1, as well. (And Bing results are consistently worse for me on any specialized search term.)
The new Duck Duck Go browser filters out all eHow results. My site was #1 there.
… as for me, I’ve downloaded the free Chrome browser extensionPersonal Blocklist and BLOCKED all eHow sites from my personal search results. If enough people do that, that content farm will die.
UPDATE: … The next version of Internet Explorer (not available yet) was just reviewed. Some improvement. But it only works well on Windows 7 and Vista, not XP. And, as usual with Microsoft, it’s too little too late.
Second UPDATE: Dave Sykes links to a BBC Tech reporter who confirms IE 9 is available for download. Microsoft claims it’s now the fastest browser on Windows 7. … When I went to check, all I can find is the IE9 Release Candidate. That’s still something of a Beta.
Microsoft doesn’t care much about IE, in any case. The big problem at Microsoft is Windows Phone 7, too little too late.
Ad agency Hill Holliday recently conducted an experiment, asking five families to give up cable TV in favor of connected TV devices for a week.
The growing availability of online content and video subscription services, coupled with an exploding market for connected devices, has pushed the idea of cord cutting — or dropping a traditional cable TV subscription package in favor of online video sources — into the mainstream. But how viable is the concept, really?
For its experiment (which the agency stresses was not intended as a scientific research study), Hill Holliday provided each family with a different connected device: the Roku, Apple TV, Xbox 360, Boxee Box and Google TV.
… on Android and iPhone can recognize puzzles and provide answers to help make you faster than a Sudoku champ. So if you ever get stuck, take a clear picture of the entire puzzle with Goggles and we’ll tell you the correct solution. …
TWIT gets its name from Mr. Laporte’s flagship podcast, “This Week in Tech,” which is downloaded by a quarter of a million people each week. He produces 22 other technology-focused podcasts that are downloaded five million times a month. He also streams video all day long that captures his podcasting and a weekend radio show on computers, “The Tech Guy,” that reaches 500,000 more people through 140 stations. …
Rick McCharles 