Travels

I don't know about everyone else, but there have been times where I have found myself missing some certain functionality in smartphones.

Right, sure What else is new?

Well what I'm talking about is not just any functionality, but functionality that used to be in old smartphones, or even PDA's that was once extremely useful to me, and is now no longer available. It seems like as smartphones move forward into the future, certain things get left behind (that are still widely used technologies) because the smartphone market believes they are "antiquated". In the end, though, the consumer knows better.

Infrared: Also known as IR, this technology was in PDAs, but never really translated over to smartphones thanks to the advent of Bluetooth. However, IR can be used in several other ways besides just pairing devices, such as controlling your television, your ceiling fan, or anything that uses a remote control. I remember using my HP 111 PDA in combination with Nevo controller software to run virtually everything in my household, right from my PDA. Pretty cool, right? This is a feat that hards to accomplish with smartphones, even today, and using old technology I was able to do it in just a few minutes.

The use of Serial ports and expandable HDD slots: My old Compaq 110 PDA had an IDE-like port on it (which attached to the serial port on the bottom, and sat on the back like a kind of case) that would allow me to use my windows mobile-enabled device to browse through hard drives on the fly without needing a laptop. For any tech, this would be an extremely useful tool that I wish I could find a system for on my current Windows Phone. For someone working on computers all the time, this technology used to be indispensable. However, the advent of the SD card killed this technology.

Windows Mobile 5: I know, I know. I might get reamed out for adding this here, but there was one thing great about windows mobile: It's file system was accessible and compatible with a Windows PC. I loved being able to use my PDA as a flash drive with a readout. I never had a moment of "did I save that to my flash drive?" because I could pull it up on my PDA and check, then connect my USB cable to my PC and upload it again later, just like a flash drive. Pretty Nifty, right? Not to mention that I could download and install my own custom java applets, which can be really, really useful. Sadly, though, the virus was the killer of this technology, and the amount of times you reformat your device due to an unauthorized java applet was very high; however, the trick there was to live and learn - and back up a lot. Which I didn't mind after weighing the benefits.

Ethernet Ports: Yes, it's true. Older PDA systems actually had Ethernet ports on them. I just want one to wire my smartphone into a system. The troubleshooting possibilities are endless.

So why am I mentioning all this? Well, I've been thinking this over and I have been getting more and more tired of carrying my laptop around to troubleshoot computers every time I need to work on a network. Wouldn't it be convenient for us professionals to have a company produce a new smartphone that has the connectivity features that would be useful to us to allow us to use our mobile device for troubleshooting?

It may be just a pipedream, but I know I would buy one.

Most people have wireless in their home these days. Those people who use their computer frequently know that wireless can be slow (and is in fact much slower than a wired connection); these people usually end up "wiring in" their most-used electronics and leave the wireless for their mobile devices, such as their tablets.

However, in the past few months a new system, "wireless Ac" has been developed that can supposedly hit speeds "over the air" that are as fast as wired internet.

That sounds really cool, until you factor in a couple of major problems.

Like any other device that has just been released, if you buy in early, you'll be paying a premium price for the new technology. Currently, on the east coast I have been seeing wireless Ac routers running for about $115. Which doesn't seem too bad until you realize that the router won' even work.

Wait, what?

That's right - you see, a wireless system has two parts, the router and the receiver. The receiver has to be built using the same technology as the router (i.e. wireless n router needs a wireless n receiver) and the fact is that virtually none of the mobile electronics on the market today are using the wireless Ac technology.

So, what happens? Well, most new wireless Ac adapters are built with wireless N backwards compatibility. That means that your electronics will pick up the signal, but it likely won't be any faster than your old router, meaning you just paid a pretty hefty sum of money for the same thing you had before. The only way to get wireless Ac speeds right now is to pick up a USB adapter that will set you back roughly another $100, and since most mobile devices don't support these kind of adapters, this is really only useful for a desktop or laptop PC.

In my opinion there isn't enough literature out there on this, so I figured I'd throw a blog up on it. Final verdict: hold off on wireless Ac until mobile devices start coming out that have the hardware to pick it up. That is when this new technology will really begin to become useful. Until then, beware of buying a wireless Ac router, and getting tricked into thinking it's working when you're only getting wireless N service.

Also, remember: wiring in is always faster and more reliable. Have a computer at the other end of the house? Go with a powerline kit.

How's that for a title?

Microsoft has, for a long time now, been trailing Apple. This is nothing new, but after hearing it a lot, you get to wondering why. After all, Mac systems are terrible business machines, they have loads of compatibility issues and are seriously overpriced. So what's going on here?

The answer is simple: on an Apple product, the entire unit - hardware and software - is tailored by Apple to be as appealing as possible.

Microsoft has been (up until very recently) a software-only company, producing nothing more than their operating system (Windows) and some software to throw onto it. That model has worked fine for them up until the last few years as the tablet market has really taken off.

Why the tablet market? Answer: Apple thought ahead.

In the process of creating the iPad, Apple patented things. Then, Apple patented more things, and finally ended by patenting more things. As a result, very few other companies have been able to produce a tablet as iconic as the iPad, simply because every time one does emerge, it is stepping on the toes of an Apple patent somehow (Galaxy Tab, anyone?). When the iPad was released, it was a surprise to everyone. There weren't many companies that saw it coming, and then everyone started playing catch up; it was virtually the iPhone all over again. So, the iPad has enjoyed it's glory days for a while now, sitting on top of its patents and eating up market share.

Meanwhile, there have been dozens of other companies doing their best to produce a reasonable competitor, and none have emerged. This was partially the fault of Microsoft, who didn't believe in tablet computing until Apple got it to work correctly (darn them!). Microsoft, under the impression that the iPad would flop, took a gamble and didn't panic.

The result of that Gamble was Windows 8, which is already being compared to Windows Vista - slipshod, buggy and unintuitive.

However, there is hope.

Microsoft finally got sick of the 3rd party problems, and made it's own tablet. The Surface.
Have you tried it? It's pretty cool, and the keyboard mechanism is also fantastic; it's really what the Asus Transformer has been trying to do all along, just done right.

Unfortunately though, a lot of Microsoft's 3rd party companies aren't exactly thrilled that Microsoft is making a competitor, but there isn't much they can do; after all, their only other option I Android, and Google has the Nexus so it's the same all the way around.

However, Microsoft has an opening here.

With the downfall of RIM, and Nokia moving into their market share, Windows Phone 8 is expected to grip 10% of the market by the end of this year. Seeing as it's only a few years old, that's really, really impressive. However, Microsoft still has very little control over the hardware, and despite Nokia's reputation for being indestructible, I have a firm belief that Microsoft will have a hard time really breaking into the market until they create a 1st party phone. However, this is unlikely. Nokia an Microsoft have an agreement, and I have a gut feeling that agreement includes Microsoft and Nokia not competing with each other (notice that there isn't a Nokia Tablet in the works?).

So what are two struggling companies to do?

Merge.

A Nokia/Microsoft Merger would be an ideal solution. Microsoft would obtain the Nokia patents, and be able to implement them into the next version of the surface, and rebrand the Lumia to a Surface Phone (or something like that) and finally go completely first party. Granted, this would shut out companies like HTC and Samsung, but Samsung has already announced that it plans to develop its own OS soon, and HTC is heavily leaning on Android, so I don't consider those to be large losses.

In the end, a first party tablet and phone, mixed with the 3rd part computer ecosystem would be a great compromise for Microsoft and would settle them right back into their own niche.

What do you think?


Note: This is an opinion article and in no way reflects fact or rumor. This is strictly written hypothetically.

Image source found here

We all have our social media preferences. Some of use Facebook, others Twitter. Still others venture out further, and touch networks like Pinterest. In this age, social networking is really no longer restricted to one outlet; the teen years of the new millennium have ushered in the age of multiple-outlet networking. As time goes on, the competition in the social industry becomes stiffer and Facebook is no longer the de-facto outlet to post your thoughts. In the wake of this, some social networks have thrived, while others have either fallen behind (MySpace, anyone?) or become stagnant. Tumblr is one such network, and has had a hard time in the market due to the advancing competition. So, as a company trying to survive, what are they to do?

Tumblr has always had a hard time turning a big profit, and so naturally the first thing that comes to mind when trying to save them is "how do we make more money?" Tumblr's answer: take their ads and go mobile.

Theoretically, a mobile ad campaign is a great concept, seeing as this is a totally untapped resource for Tumblr. On top of that, they have attracted big names such as Warner Bros. and this is encouraging for them. However, I think Tumblr might be getting a bit ahead of itself with this mobile ad campaign.

Wait, Why? You just said this was a good idea!

Simple: Tumblr is currently shrouded in obscurity when it comes to its use, and most new Tumblr users are finding it hard to adapt because of this. Let me explain.

You see, Tumblr is supposed to be a blogging platform, and technically it is; you can post things to your page, and this becomes your "blog". However, Tumblr is designed so that your blog is naturally hard to find. Therefore, it does not attract serious bloggers, but rather a younger crowd of people who are looking to generate something more like an online diary, only visible to a select few people. This means that the heart of Tumblr is not actually social, but is really closer to what you would expect to see in a high school lunchroom: a gathering area for cliques. We know this bad, because Facebook has tried to defeat this by increasing its methods of new friend discovery several times in its life. The problem with this form of social networking is that few people often venture out to find new connections, thus limiting the full use of the site and limiting content distribution, which is a turn off for marketers.

I like the idea that Tumblr is finally getting serious about becoming a more "real" social network, and turning a profit, but I feel as though the platform really needs to go through some refining before they can truly become a competitor in the social network industry. Tumblr needs to make a decision: are they a blogging platform, or a diary platform? In my opinion, once this is clarified, then their user base can expand based on a clear definition of service, and prove to potential advertising investors that their money will be worth it.

After al, Tumblr does get its user to spend more time on it on average than Facebook. There is some real potential there for advertisers. Tumblr just has to make the advertisers see that first.

I do my best to watch the tech market very closely. No one is perfect, of course, but I believe that there is one thing people starting to widely agree upon: Apple is beginning to have problems. You may have heard this once or twice, but really; how can anyone tell how Apple is doing?

It's a fair question that I feel has not been appropriately answered by the media. Here's my opinion on the matter.

I am throwing my voice into the wind of people who think Apple is on the verge of internal collapse, but why do I think so? Apple is so tight-lipped about everything that it's hard to get a launch date out of them, let alone someone saying "yes, we're about to fail".

However, there are signs.

One: Before Steve Jobs, Apple had a very fragmented product line, similar to Microsoft. Their computers has confusing hardware setups, and it was difficult to find a Mac that worked for you. On top of that, the price for the systems seemed unjustified and at the time it was. So what did Steve Jobs do? He killed a lot of the products in Apple. Apple's line shrunk don to just a few products, and these exclusive pieces of equipment were then remarketed as a "high-quality, premium product" to justify the price. Each product was made with high quality material, and designed to do one thing: run fast.

While Steve Jobs was in power, this model worked phenomenally for them.

Now that he is gone, however, it seems that things are beginning to change. Apple has added a lot of new product, including an iPad Mini, several new Mac Books, a new line of color options, etc. Now, there is even rumors of a new iPhone line for the budget shoppers, and silly useless gadgets such as an iWatch floating around.

Seems a little...fragmented. Doesn't it? It does to me, and that tells me that the unification Steve Jobs created is beginning to fall apart on the inside.

Two: The iPhone 5 seems a little cheap, don't you think? It sure seemed that way to me when I put my hands on it. The back of it has echoes of the plastic on the Samsung Galaxy series, and is a far cry from the glass of the iPhone 4 series. This tells me that Apple is beginning to toss out the "premium parts, premium price" motto and instead focusing harder on their profit margin, which in my opinion is a bad move. Granted, the iPhone 5 is probably more durable, but there are other ways to make a phone harder to kill. The Nokia Lumia 920 can survive a fastball with virtually no damage. How? It's that new Gorilla Glass 2 that does the trick. Had this been utilized in the iPhone 5, it may have been a real home run.

Three: The lack of changes from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 5 seems to have upset a lot of users; many people feel as though they bought the new phone for nothing, or simply decided to wait for the iPhone 5s. This lack of change has prompted Apple to kick iOS 7 into overtime by borrowing developers from OSX to pump out the new iOS in time for the iPhone 6. However, this seriously concerns me.

It has been rumored that iOS 7 will be drastically different from iOS 6, forcing users to re-learn a system that is already very familiar to them. Granted, we don't know this for sure, but I can sure bet that it will be at least a little different. I just hope that Apple builds on functionality instead of changing it. Companies are known for making drastic changes in functionality when times get tough (look at RIM and WP) and this isn't always a good idea (as in the RIM example).

Meanwhile, as Apple scrambles to overhaul iOS, the question of the iPhone 7 emerges. It has been confirmed that the iPhone 5 and 6 were pre-designed before the death of Steve Jobs, and this has left everyone wondering is Apple is prepared to redesign the phone without him. Can they do it? In my opinion, I believe that their handling of iOS 7 should give us a good idea of the answer to this question.

So what does all of this mean in the end?


It seems to me that these are the factors everyone is examining when considering the future of Apple. These are the markers that we find our path with, and try  to predict the fate of the giant. My opinion? I truly believe that right now, the fate of Apple rest on iOS 7. If this does well, it could restore the faith of investors. If they flop with this new OS, then who knows. Maybe we'll see the rise of the Windows Phone.

We have all been hearing (at lest to some degree) that Facebook, Inc. is "making a phone" soon, or has already made one. Thanks to all of the hype and excitement, though, I feel that the news has gotten a bit blown out of proportion over the past few months. So, I decided it was time for me to write a quick little article on this "Facebook Phone" for the sole purpose of laying down all the facts in one place.

Here goes.

First and foremost, "The Facebook Phone" is not a phone. It is, in fact, just an android app; albeit a powerful one. This app is known as "Facebook Home" and can be downloaded to most andoid phones running jellybean (a recent version of Android). Facebook Home has one purpose: to turn your phone into a Facebook-centric "Social System", allowing you to do things like post updates to Facebook right from your Android lock screen, and post images to your albums without having to switch between your camera app and Facebook App.

This sounds cool to anyone who uses Facebook, right? My first reaction would be "Wow! What a great way to add functionality to your phone!"

Unfortunately though, it isn't all roses and daisies.

You see, Facebook Home is a little more than just an "app" - it utilizes a process called "skinning". In layman's terms, "skinning" (or "to skin") means "to override a system's basic functionality with new functionality to accomplish a particular task". In other words, Facebook Home is altering the Android Operating System at some core levels . This is how Facebook Home is able to edit your lock screen, camera, etc.

So what's the problem with that? I trust Facebook to know how to work with code.

The problem with skinning is that you are bound to affect the functionality of other parts of the device you're restructuring and sure enough, Facebook Home does just that.

If you're an individual who utilizes a lot of widgets on your android phone, you may want to steer clear of Facebook Home; the app controls your widget functionality and thereby disables the use of many of your favorite widgets, including simple ones like clocks. It also changes the basic flow of certain parts of the phone, meaning that if you're not a power user, it might take you a little while to get the hang of the new Facebook Home system. Even though it is just a skin, it does make some pretty significant changes to the phone.

The changes are so significant, that according to Forbes, the app on Google play is getting some pretty low marks. In the end, what Facebook Home really does is asks you to sacrifice a good chunk of existing Android functionality in order to utilize it's system and a lot of Android users simply aren't willing to do that. Granted, Facebook Home may be wonderful for the Facebook Power user, but aside from that small target group Facebook Home may be a bit to extreme of a change to swallow.

Hey, wait a minute. I could have sworn I heard about a real phone coming out!

There is a new HTC phone being released soon, called the HTC First, with Facebook Home Pre-installed. This is the phone you have been hearing about.

In the end, what you need to know is this: Facebook Home can be used on most Android Smartphones. It does change the phone. A lot. If this is right for you, then try and install it - you can always reverse the damage by uninstalling it later. 500,000 people have already done so in the last five days, so this seems to be a safe bet. However, I wouldn't recommend wasting your money on the HTC First. Why? Simple. You can just as easily turn your Galaxy SIII into a "Facebook Phone" - for free. Do it that way, and you won't have buyer's remorse when you realize your phone doesn't have that cool lighter widget you live so much.

This is my advice to all Facebookers out there right now, as it stands.
Hope this post sheds some light on the whole situation. Cheers, and happy reading!

-Joe