The college I went to had very small cells… I mean dorm rooms. Two people to a small concrete walled-room, with a closet, bed, and desk that mounted to the walls. The RA on my floor (we’ll call him “Roy”) was a real stickler about making us obey the rules – no televisions or refrigerators unless they were rented from the overpriced facility in our dorm. After all, he didn’t want anybody creating a fire hazard. But in his room? A large…
As soon as I saw today’s news, I thought that there would be confusion about what “Office for tablets and smartphones going free” would mean. There certainly has been. Office for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets is indeed free, within certain bounds. I’m going to attempt to succinctly delinate the cases under which it is, and is not, free. Office is free for you to use on your smartphone or tablet if, and only if: You are not using…
On my flight today, I rewatched the documentary Objectified. I’ve seen it a few times before, but it has been several years. While I don’t jibe with 100% of the sentiment of the documentary, it made me think a bit about design, as I was headed to Dallas. In particular, it made me consider Apple, Microsoft, and Google, and their dramatically different approaches to design – which are in fact a reflection of the end goal of each of the…
As I write this, I’m on a plane at 30,000+ feet, headed to Chicago. Seatmates include a couple from Toronto headed home from a cruise to Alaska. The husband and I talk technology a bit, and he mentions that his wife particularly enjoys sending letters as they travel. He and I both smile as we consider the novelty in 2014 of taking a piece of paper, writing thoughts to friends and family, and putting it in an envelope to travel…
When was the last time you paid to read a piece of content on the Web? Most likely, it’s been a while. The users of the Web have become used to the idea that Web content is (more or less) free. And outside of sites that put paywalls up, that indeed appears to be the case. But is the Web really free? I’ve had lots of conversations lately about personal privacy, cookies, tracking, and “getting scroogled“. Some with technical colleagues, some with…
I’m pretty lucky. For now, this is the view from my office window. You see all those boats? I get to look out at the water, and those boats, all the time (sun, rain, or snow). But those boats… honestly, I see most of those boats probably hundreds of days per year more than their owners do. I’d bet there’s a large number of them that haven’t moved in years. The old adage goes “The two happiest days in a…
Late last week, some buzz began building that Apple, alongside automaker partners, would formally reveal the first results of their “iOS in the Car” initiative. Much as rumors had suspected, the end result, now dubbed CarPlay, was demonstrated (or at least shown in a promo video) by initial partners Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo. If you only have time to watch one of them, watch the video of the Ferrari. Though it is an ad-hoc demo, the Ferrari video isn’t painfully…
So today Google announced that they will pay US$3.2B for Nest Labs. Surely the intention here is to have the staff of Nest help Google with home automation, the larger Internet of Things (IoT) direction, and user interfaces. All three of these are, frankly, trouble spots for Google, and if they nurture the Nest team and let them thrive, it’ll be a good addition to Google. Otherwise, they will have wound up paying a premium to buy out a good company…
I hope these rumors are wrong, but for some odd reason, the Web is full of rumors that this year’s CES will bring a glut of bimodal tablets; devices that are designed to run Windows 8.1, but also feature an integrated instance of Android. But why? For years, Microsoft and Intel were seemingly the best of partners. While Microsoft had fleeting dalliances with other processor architectures, they always came back to Intel. There were clear lines in the sand; Intel…
It’s the season for predictions, so I thought I’d offer you my predictions about wearables in 2014. Wearables will continue to be nerd porn in 2014 (in other words, when you say “wearable devices”, most normal people will respond, “what?”) Many wearable devices will be proposed by vendors. Too many of those will actually make it to market. A few of those will be useful. A handful of those will be aesthetically pleasing. A minute number (possibly 0) of those…