Due to the fact that you can only really compare two different UI’s after you are familiar with them the best way to compare iOS with Android is to watch a pair of people used to operating their phones do common tasks.
Having done this in the past few weeks with friends with Android phones (it is tribute that only a few months ago I could not say I had friends with Android phones) it is obvious that it take much longer to do basic tasks with Android, simply looking up contact info or using google maps to find something and get directions seemed to take 2 to 3x the number of steps that the iPhone did. But with that said there were things you could get on the Android that you could not with the iPhone like turn by turn directions.
The other obvious test is give a phone to someone who has never used it and watch how long it take to be come useful. Again having done this a few time the iPhone is way more intuitive to use than Android.
And this is all with out the issue of 3rd party applications – where Android still has much to catch up with both in terms of types and quality.
It would appear that these are not issues the developers of Android are focused on as it would not be that hard to fix these issues – and Google has said that usability will be a focus for version 3.0.
Apple on the other hand develops and test for usability first and feature depth only after interface issues are resolved.
As Android has become more mature (and competitive with iOS) this fundamental development focus is increasing the main difference between the two platforms. And as a result the difference between their fans.
It is all good as by each focussing on different areas of the OS/UI while competing with each other Apple and Google will continue to push the envelope making mobile devices more useful and powerful. It’s the Nokia’s, RIM’s and MSFT’s of the world that can not keep pace on ether front!
This is based on my thoughts after reading:
Inside the heads of Android fanboys
Reaction to InfoWorld’s iOS vs. Android face-off reveals that Android aficionados like tech that requires secret knowledge
Posted in: Computers & Communications, Smart Phones
Dell has always been a commodity product sold on price. Their brief life as a Data Center partner is over as it was tied to MSFT’s dominance.
Once you build your biz on non differentiated product sold on price you find their is always someone willing to sell it for less.
HP has gotten their supply chain costs in line while providing better service and support at the corporate level and Asus etc are more than willing to sell cheaper PC’s than Dell.
They have nothing left except for some inertia in IT purchasing departments.
Dell has always been a commodity product sold on price. Their brief life as a Data Center partner is over as it was tied to MSFT’s dominance.
Once you build your biz on non differentiated product sold on price you find their is always someone willing to sell it for less.
HP has gotten their supply chain costs in line while providing better service and support at the corporate level and Asus etc are more than willing to sell cheaper PC’s than Dell.
They have nothing left except for some inertia in IT purchasing departments.
Check out: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2010/07/the-dell-tale-starts-to-unravel-and-its-a-bombshell.html
Posted in: Computers & Communications
Seems like all the rage but not everyone thinks so:
Check out this discussion: (http://forum.speakerplans.com/how-tocardioid-sub-arrays_topic26007.html)
“For sub-bass control i’m not convinced there is any advantage over just pointing all the subs forward & forming a wide horizontal array, in most circumstances. IE try to induce as much diffraction directivity as possible & then the radiation pattern tends to be cardioid shaped anyway.”
“I do have and use Q-Subs and S2 cabs. The CSA method does work to some extend, but you need more gear ( cabs and amps ) to end up with less SPL than straightforward non-CSA. I tried it several times in various venues from very small to rather big and from my experience it’s a small benefit at best at the cost of more gear. The feeling creeps on me that it’s a marketting ploy to sell more gear because they ( not only D&B ) convinced you bass splill at the rear is THE BIG problem. But is rear spill really that big a problem ? I admid it can be in some cases, but an environmental problem primarly in open air gigs. Every time I used it, musicians start complaining”
The best I hav sen on this topic is:
Phase Wavelengths: The End Fire Cardioid Array made visible
and Dave`s blog for his take on it…
http://ratsound.com/blognav.htm
Highly informative and some intriguing questions?
More! you ask check these out:
Posted in: Information Resource Page, Loudspeakers, Pro Audio Indsutry
10 Ways to Keep Your Blog Full of Content
Read the whole thing at:
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6023/10-Simple-Strategies-for-Business-Blog-Content.aspx
1. Answer Customer Questions -
2. Aggregate Industry Information
3. Think Beyond Text
4. Seek Out Guest Authors
5. Make Lists
6. Make Charts
7. Think Like an OpEd Writer
9. Review Industry Books
10. Break News
Posted in: Marketing
Media coverage of the “War between Apple and Adobe” is good for lots of page views on news and blog sites, but most of the coverage is about who is going to “win”. It seams the combination of the media’s attention to everything Apple along with Adobe attempts to wage a publicity war is producing lots of traffic bringing out the fan boys on all sides (Apple, FLash, along strangely enough with fanboys from Microsoft, Android and Open Source).
There are a few good examples of people actually trying to figure out the facts and what it all means like these:
Reading Between the iPhone OS 4.0 Lines – daringfireball.net/2010/04/reading_between_the_iphone_os_4_lines
All week long I was reading the volleys on the web about the “effects” of the new iPhone OS4 SDK developer agreement, the impact of no flash on Apple’s iPad or Adobe’s success and the whimpering cries from the Android developer fan boys, while at the same time I have been working on a major project for a new client website- using Adobe tools for the job (CS4 testing across Safari, Firefox and Chrome on both the Mac and Windows along with IE ). This project required me to work more intensely with the Adobe CS4 than I have have in the past. I have used Adobe products since they came out – and in most instances from before they were Adobe products, but it has been many years since I was this directly doing the work instead of overseeing a team, so I had to get my hands dirty and actually delve into the depths of CS4.
The project calls for what should be easy today a database driven site requiring:
- CSS based Web layout
- Simple Motion Graphics
- Instructional Videos
Other than Photoshop all the Adobe CS4 products I worked with did a very poor job and proved to be unreliable.
The documentation (or should I say lack there of) is something Adobe should be ashamed of. They expect a customer to pay more than a thousand dollars for a product that has no documentation??? The online help is poorly indexed and when you search for answers you come up with mostly out of date references to older versions of Creative Suite that are not every useful. I am sure Adobe would be happy to sell me support and lessons, that is not what I am looking for. In almost every case it was easier and better to simply search for off the shelf PHP, Javascript or HTML/CSS solutions than use Adobe’ solution.
In every case it turned out simpler to use not Adobe supplied solutions where you Google what you are trying to do, quickly find a solution, copy and quickly edit it to your needs. The Adobe solution if you could find one was spend hours searching for Dreamweaver help and end up with a proprietary solution that is clunky and harder to produce and maintain. Examples of this are:
Inserting RSS feeds into a webpage – something that is simple in iWeb, or even in Wordpress is a major project in Dreamweaver!
Adobe needs to get back to their knitting and make their software work.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Just read a bunch of the stories on the web about “20 zero-day security holes in Mac OS X to be revealed”.
It amazes me that no one questions this junk!
The security industry only makes money if people are scared!
They have good reason to fear the wider adoption of OSX, it is more secure than Windows as long as Windows maintains the level of backwards compatibility – like XP mode in Win 7. They can sandbox Windows compatibility mode but there will still be problems with the old API’s that MS used to do inter app communications.
Mac OSX unlike Windows is based on Unix and was designed with multi-user security from day one – Windows still has legacy of single user operating system.
No software is bug free or totally safe, but to say in any way that OSX is less secure than Windows is simply not true.
The fact is not that there are legions of bad guys trying to steel from your computer – is a a media hyped – security industry backed – hysteria. The majority of threats on window are made my script puppy amateur hackers who do it to prove they can, it’s a right of passage. And they target windows because it is easy, it does not take deep programing insight or knowledge – all it takes a simple scripting.
The real story is simply not told, as there is no one who wants the story to be told.
Microsoft does not want to admit that they have the problem and they want to sell the updates to try and wall off their problems.
The IT industry makes too much money from the need to have the high priests protect the Corporate computer infrastructure. Many jobs would be in jeopardy if everyone was not scared about how to keep their company safe from infection.
The security industry’s whole business model is baed on the fear of viruses and malware.
I have had an OSX Server machine on the internet as a server for more than 5 years without a problem, with out a external firewall simply using regular Apple updates. My last Windows server could not stay online for more than a week without the need to deal with security problems. Windows can not do that and never will until they completely rewrite it. I have also had Unix boxes up for years with out a problem. Since the days of NT4 I have not been able to keep a Windows machine on the net for more than a few months without a problem of some sort – it is designed to need full IT support!
Posted in: Computers & Communications
With all the talk in the media about the possibility / inevitability of Apple introducing a tablet in their line up positioned in between the iPhone and the Macbook, I thought it would be interesting to look back at Apple successes and failures in the past with regard to defining new territory.
Now there are clearly four broad phases in Apple’s history all with their own relative strengths and weaknesses when it comes to both product innovation along with their capability to successfully establish a new category of product:
- “Inventing the Consumer PC market years”
Apple IIc with LCD Screen (actually for the next time phase but from the pre-Mac team)
- “Creating the WIMP Interface PC market years”
- “The non Steve years”
The Newton way before it's time - and soup the data base it ran is still ahead of what we have today
One of the most dramatic forward looking form factor computers again way before it's time. Foreshadows the iMac
Apple's Newton family had later versions that foreshadowed much
- “The Steve is back years”
Some products to look at:
Posted in: Computers & Communications, MI Industry News, Marketing, Pro Audio Indsutry
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Posted in: Uncategorized
Harman To Sponsor Music-Oriented TV Series
By Joseph Palenchar — TWICE, August 6, 2009
Stamford, Conn. – Harman International will be the title sponsor of a new music-oriented TV, online and in-flight series produced in cooperation with National Geographic and other broadcast partners.
The Music Nomad series will feature live and in-studio performances as well as artist interviews across several continents to explore diverse music genres, the company said. The upcoming series will be hosted by Jacob Edgar, a leading international music producer and CEO of the independent record label Cumbancha. For the series, the ethnomusicologist traveled the globe to seek out exceptional songs and musical talent, Harman said.
The new series will air in November on the Nat Geo Music and Nat Geo Adventure channels in cooperation with various cable and satellite providers. Nat Geo Music is a 24-hour music channel that debuted in 2007 and is available in Latin America, parts of Europe and Africa. Nat Geo Adventure is available in about 40 countries outside the U.S.
via Harman To Sponsor Music-Oriented TV Series – 2009-08-06 12:59:16 EDT | TWICE.
Should be interesting both to see what they come up with and how useful moving beyond traditional MI / Pro audio media works.
Posted in: MI Industry News, Marketing, Pro Audio Indsutry
With all the talk of upgrades here is some of the fun stuff floating around the web:
Apple’s upgrade path from fake Steve:
From: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
Walt’s version from: Deciphering Windows 7 Upgrades: The Official Chart:
Windows 7 Upgrade paths that can kill!
The MS response by Ed Bott Microsoft blunders with a confusing Windows 7 upgrade chart:
The MS response
Just for fun here are some old charts on the web about upgrades
An old HP Unix upgrade chart HP Tru64 UNIX Version 5.1B-2 and Higher: Patch Kit Installation Instructions
HP Unit Chart
It is always easy to make fun of Vista!
Vista was no easy path
MS makes it interesting (or difficult):
What version of Vista can I upgrade to from XP?
From April Survey: 84% won’t upgrade to Windows 7 in the next year:
In addition to Mac OS X, enterprises are looking at a rainbow of Unix alternatives, as shown in the chart
From http://karchesky.com/comics/stochastic/operating-system-chart/
What is the best OS for you?(December 7th, 2008)
Other charts I found looking around:
The Mac is better at all but Porn
Believe it or not, YouTube has been inaccessible in any corner of the world for about an hour.
The Joy of Tech! 2007
Computer Hardware Chart (July 20th, 2009)
Unix Family Tree
IT guys love flow charts - from Oracle
Migration from SBS or NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003 or SBS 2003 is not a simple one!
Lets not forget Linux
From the www.itjungle.com (love the name)
Doubling up the core counts to a maximum of 32 cores in the Power 570 did not change the upgrade paths, as you can see:
All in good fun!
Posted in: Uncategorized
