January 2012
19 posts
The Technology Geek is Moving!
The Technology Geek will shortly be moving!
What? Moving? What do you mean?
Having been hosted on Tumblr since its inception I’ve outgrown what I can do on here. Don’t get me wrong - I love tumblr (except when it goes down) , but I need more control to take this humble little blog where I want to take it!
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I’ll shortly be moving its own...
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“In the sales war between the iPhone and Android, latest figures from the NPD...”
– Adrian Kingsly-Hughes demonstrates a shocking misunderstanding of what market share is.
He goes on to say:
Between Q3 2011 and October/November sales of iPhones soared from 26% to a whopping 43%. During the same period sales of Android devices fell from a high of 60% to 47%.
The figures...
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“One thing we are sure of is Galaxy S phones, which include several phone models...”
– Open.
And then shut.
Samsung Will Not Upgrade Galaxy S Phones
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Lightroom 4 Public Beta: What's New →
DP Review has a good roundup of what’s new in the recently announced Lightroom 4 Beta
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Samsung pushes SwipeIt media sharing app, AirPlay... →
A somewhat ironic name for Samsung’s Air Play clone.
To be fair though, I don’t think this is as much like Air Play as people think. Air Play is a system level function on iOS while this appears to be an app. Part of Air Play’s appeal is that it is system level.
Still, given Samsung’s penchant for shamelessly robbing every Idea Apple has, the comparisons are inevitable.
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“The company (Samsung) is believed to have achieved 25 percent sequential growth...”
– 35 Million, also the number of models of Smartphone Samsung has on the market.
AppleInsider | Surging smartphones drive record profits for Samsung
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Reality TV Producer Bunim/Murray Drops Final Cut... →
Unfortunately I can’t say I’m surprised to read a headline like this. It’s a real shame Apple decided to shaft the market the way they did. it really had the market sewn up with FCP and then it went and shot itself in the foot.
I hope that FCPX will gain back the necessary capacity to handle pro jobs like this again, but they’re going to loose a lot of market share in the...
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“There’s a bug in Apple’s iOS 5 that would allow anyone to look into...”
– Sounds bad, right? I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. You see, scary headlines aside, this bug probably won’t ever won’t affect you.
The bug only works to allow you to see the camera roll while the phone is locked only if you manually set the date on your phone back.
...
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“Retailers have been forced to slash the price of the recently released Sony PS...”
– Hands up anyone who didn’t see this coming?
Sony PS Vita price dropped following poor sales | T3
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Clean out Launchpad completely →
Great tip from Lex Friedman on Macworld for clearing out an over stuffed launch pad. I think the reason so many people hate Launchpad is that they’ve upgraded from a a previous OS and everything and the kitchen sink is in Launchpad making it practically useless. This handy tip gives you a nice do-over.
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iPhone 4 in pure CSS3! →
Very impressive use of CSS. Not a single image was used and yet the result is almost photo real.
Apple TV hacked to run iPhone and iPad apps →
This is an impressive feat of hacking, although it’s not of much practical use.
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The Technology Geek’s Predictions for Apple in...
Every year at this time it is customary for people to make predictions about their favourite topics for the year ahead. While some people might object to this as needless pontificating, at the end of the day it’s all just harmless good fun. My favourite subject of course is Apple, so, without further ado, here’s my look into the crystal ball for 2012 and what it might hold for the Cupertino...
December 2011
26 posts
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“The iPhone is boxy, flat and feeling stale. The Samsung Galaxy smartphone seems...”
– Every time someone posts one of these “Apple is doomed to irrelevance” type posts (which is pretty regularly) I always have to laugh at how they assume that everyone else will continue to develop and Apple will just stand still and never update a product or do anything innovative ever...
A Long-Time Apple Nerd’s Review of the Galaxy... →
A very fair and reasonable review from Shawn Blanc.
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The Fat Trap →
Fascinating article from the New York Times about the science behind weight loss, and the ongoing research into the subject.
And, before you think this is about the science of dieting or coming up with new ways to sell diet products, it’s not, it’s about the physiology of what happens to the body and some of the things that happen that we don’t yet fully understand.
It really...
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Apple’s Terrific And Tumultuous 2011 →
Good round up of Apple’s year from Tech Crunch.
Amazing how some people in the comments take an almost violent exception to anyone daring to post anything good about Apple.
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Hackers plan space satellites to combat censorship →
Cool - Space pirates!
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“Google’s Android Market is now home to a couple not so convincing Siri clones,...”
– But wait, didn’t you know? It’s ok to steal, lie and mislead when it’s “Open”.
Copying is innovation after all. Apparently.
Siri clones land in Android Market with official Apple icons and deceptive marketing | 9to5Mac
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Lion's Frustrating Restart Behaviour
When Apple introduced OS X Lion this year one of the controversial features was the option to resume all applications on rebooting, much like the way the iPad and iPhone behave. While this in and of itself would not such a bad thing if it was purely optional, there are some things about its behaviour that are very frustrating. First of all, there is the fact that it is the default option. For...
“The supply chain of Apple will start preparing materials for iTV sets in the...”
– That would be the same “Industry Sources” that said the iPhone 5 was due to launch in 2011 then?
Apple suppliers to start preparing materials for iTV in 1Q12, say sources
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“…this year, with devices using the Android operating system reaching a...”
– And what’s number two on the list? A virus checker. Says it all really, doesn’t it.
In 2011, App Developers Turned Attention to Android - NYTimes.com
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“If you’re an Android user, you may simply have to accept that you didn’t buy an...”
– And yet analysts insist on lumping them all in together when calculating market share in order to show how android is “winning” against the iPhone (as opposed to iOS as a whole) a single device.
There Is No Such Thing as Android, Only Android-Compatible | Epicenter | Wired.com
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700,000 Daily Activations Isn't Good News →
parislemon:
Amit Runchal has a slightly different take on Andy Rubin’s revelation from two days ago that Google is now activating 700,000 Android devices a day. Says Runchal:
But as far as I can tell, the 700,000 number isn’t good for Android. It’s bad. It means that Android activation growth has slowed dramatically, by almost a factor of three.
Bonus points for calling out the ridiculous...
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“In an effort to evade a Facebook lawsuit, he changed his name to Mark...”
– Brilliant
Entrepreneur changes name to Mark Zuckerberg to avoid lawsuit - siliconrepublic.com
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Apple's tablet market share drops to 61.5 per cent →
Well, I guess if a random research analyst company no one’s ever heard of before says so, then it must be true.
And analysts are always right when it comes to Apple. Always.
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Verizon confirms Galaxy Nexus 'signal strength... →
I’m sure Gizmodo will be championing a campaign to have owners of the Galaxy Nexus given a free case and for the phone to be recalled any day now.
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Hasbro sues Asus over Transformer Prime name →
I don’t know what’s more amazing about this story, that Asus thought they would get away with it, or the comments from people saying they should. The “it’s a totally different product” excuse is bullshit. Asus are trying to cash in on the Transformers brand pure and simple. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just deluding themselves.
The other excuse is that no one would...
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“A number of recent hires at Apple suggest the company is looking to make further...”
– And here was I thinking they were going to leave it the same as it is forever.
Yes, I know this piece is about some of the people involved and their connections to Notifications on iOS, but the above statement is just stupid. Of course they’re looking to improve Notification Centre.
And...
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“Still, the “Geek Lobby,” as they’ve been called, are wary of the impact that...”
– I love the way that the Washington Post writer Maura Judkis tries to imply this is a marginal issue by suggesting it’s just a fringe group who care about the issue. The whole piece is written in the vein of “oh look what these silly nerds are up to” completely misrepresenting the...
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“Sci-fi fans be warned, there are no great stories, characters or profound life...”
– Never a truer word was spoken!
George Takei Wants to Unite Star Wars Fans and Star Trek Fans in War Against Twilight
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“If the ads are trying to win over Apple customers, which, one would assume is...”
– By me, on my technology blog…
Thomas Fitzgerald: Macintosh, Design and Technology Blog
November 2011
4 posts
Apple Wants to Reduce Production of the iPhone 4S →
I guess no one learned any lessons from the non appearance of the iPhone 5 then? For the love of god stop taking rumours so seriously. Especially when it comes from a source known to not be trustworthy.
Quarter of iPad owners use their Apple tablets... →
So let me get this straight. You’re publishing a report from a voucher company as hard evidence of a claim. Seriously?
Wow. T3 is really starting to give gizmo do a run for its money when it comes to publishing sensational bulls**t apple related posts.
DigiTimes: Apple lowering fourth quarter orders... →
Why, oh why do people keep publishing reports from Digi Times. They’re almost always complete BS.
“Thomas Carey, a partner at Sunstein, a major intellectual property (IP) law firm...”
– Zdnet clearly didn’t watch the video in question, because the very next line after where they show the sliding to unlock feature the narrator says “That’s very iPhone like”
So, if the video pre-dates the iPhone, how can they be comparing it to the iPhone?
Quality journalism...
October 2011
18 posts
The bullshit Samsung smartphone numbers →
Jim Dalrymple on why those samsung numbers I blogged about earlier are a work of fiction.