Google Slammed for 'Lack of Choice'

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Frank X. Shaw (Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications at Microsoft):

“During the last week or so, there has been a fair amount of discussion about how Google is making some unpopular changes to some of its most popular products

....

You can see some of the concerns and worries about lack of choice and so on in these links. When we read the coverage last week, it was clear people were honestly wrestling with the choices that had been made for them and were looking for options or alternatives.”

Well, well, well.. how the turn tables...

(via The Next Web)

Ben Brooks on Facebook

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Ben Brooks agrees with Paul Robert Lloyd's well-reasoned argument that Facebook has become arrogant, then simply arrests:

[S]o too has Google, Apple, Microsoft, and RIM.

That's a lot of people to throw on the pile with no rationale behind it. Not saying he's wrong necessarily, but you need to back that kind of a statement up.

Firefox 10 is Out

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Firefox 10, Opera 11, Chrome 18 – These release cycles are crazy. Chrome 17 was released on January 5th, Chrome 18 came out 11 days later! And some of the release notes are mind-boggling. For Chrome 11.0, released last April 27th:

HTML5 Speech Input API. Updated icon.

That's it!? An new API and an icon update? That warrants a new x.0 release number? They're worse than Microsoft.

Tablet Shipments

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Sarah Perez, reporting numbers released  by NPD:

[T]ablet PC shipments are expected to grow from 72.7 million units in 2011 to 383.3 million units by 2017.

Okay, so the tablet market is going to grow. They'll ship more tablets in 2017 than computers in 2011. Great. The thing I don't understand is why everyone is so hung up on shipping numbers. Shipped is not sold. Give me the sold numbers, please.

(via TechCrunch)

Apple, Foxconn, and Working Conditions

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BSR, the company that the NYT used as a source for their shocking exposé on Apple said today:

There are several areas where the text you provided us is inaccurate and therefore presents an inaccurate account of events you aim to describe. It is untrue that Apple has consistently disregarded advice that BSR has provided about problems related to working conditions in its supply chain.

Also, Foxconn manufactures products for companies:

  • Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
  • Amazon.com (United States)
  • Apple Inc. (United States)
  • ASRock (Taiwan)
  • Asus (Taiwan)
  • Barnes & Noble (United States)
  • Cisco (United States)
  • Dell (United States)
  • EVGA Corporation (United States)
  • Hewlett-Packard (United States)
  • Intel (United States)
  • IBM (United States)
  • Lenovo (China)
  • Logitech (Switzerland)
  • Microsoft (United States)
  • MSI (Taiwan)
  • Motorola (United States)
  • Netgear (United States)
  • Nintendo (Japan)
  • Nokia (Finland)
  • Panasonic (Japan)
  • Philips (Netherlands)
  • Samsung (South Korea)
  • Sharp (Japan)
  • Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)
  • Toshiba (Japan)
  • Vizio (United States)

(via Wikipedia & Macworld)

HP Following Samsung's Lead

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Dana Wollman:

Still, it's painfully obvious where HP drew its inspiration for its newest Envy laptops. It's not because of any single design choice, like the aluminum unibody chassis, island-style keys, glowing logo or giant clickpad; it's all of the above! HP's latest 15-incher is the most flagrant Mac imitation we've seen in some time, and the resemblance is close enough that you could, at first glance, mistake the interior for an MBP.

(via Engadget)

Symantec vs Lookout Mobile

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Charles Arthur:

The dispute indicates that the conflict about the difference between [what Symantec believes is] malware and [what Lookout Mobile deems in just] "adware" – where software on the user's computer generates intrusive advertising.

I remember the endless parade of new IE windows in Windows 98SE when I'd gotten a virus of some sort or another. I can tell you the difference means nothing to the typical end-user. Besides… this (directly from the Android Market) doesn't sound simply like 'adware' to me:

Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.

Android is winning!

Also, from the same article, for free:

Rebundling often occurs when apps produced by reputable publishers are copied and then re-uploaded to the market by smaller publishers or by individuals as though they created them. Such copying is a persistent problem in the Android Market, where there is no pre-approval for apps.

(via The Guardian)

On Siri's Data Usage

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Gary Morganthaler, reporting for Forbes:

Arieso presents no data to support their claim that Siri causes the increase in iPhone 4S data usage. Most likely, Arieso committed a logical fallacy which, in grammar school, was called “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” — that is, “ after the fact, therefore, because of the fact.”  In other words, Siri is new and associated with the iPhone 4S; therefore, it must be the cause of this increased traffic. It’s an appealing argument, but it doesn’t hold water.