Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 2, 2012
by sjvn01
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Roku Adds Killer App for Internet TV: Cross-Service Search

Roku has long made great, easy-to-use Internet TV streaming boxes. Now it has set itself apart from the pack by adding cross-Internet streaming service searching. I think Roku has its killer app.

If you’re old enough, you recall that VisiCalc was the PC’s first killer app: a program that made the purchase a necessity rather than a “nice to have.” VisiCalc turned microcomputers from toys for hobbyists to tools for enthusiasts. Similarly, Lotus 1-2-3 forced many businesses to buy IBM PCs, because the spreadsheet only ran on that platform.

I think Roku may have found its killer app in its new, integrated search feature. Roku lets you search across Amazon Instant, Crackle, HBO GO , Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Vudu from within the Roku 2, Roku LT, the new Roku HD players, and the Roku Streaming Stick’s display.

Roku Adds Killer App for Internet TV: Cross-Service Search. More >

November 1, 2012
by sjvn01
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IE gains in latest browser war results

It seemed like a predictable trend: Watch Internet Explorer’s (IE’s) market share drop. For the longest time, you could count on IE losing Web browser market share and either Chrome or Firefox picking up users. However, the latest October 2012 numbers from NetMarketShare show that IE is continuing to regain lost ground, thus ensuring its rule as the most popular desktop Web browser, with 54 percent of the market worldwide.

IE’s still-above-the-halfway mark is followed by Mozilla’s Firefox with 20 percent and with Google’s Chrome nipping at its heels with 19 percent. The other “popular” Web browsers remain mired in the single digits. Apple’s Safari comes in fourth with 5 percent and Opera takes fifth, hitting 2 percent only because we round up the percentages.

IE has gained half-a-percentage point since September. This came mostly at the expense of Chrome, which dropped 0.31 percent while Firefox lost .09 percent. Those numbers are small enough that formal market researchers would say there’s essentially no change. However, a little more variance is evident if you poke around in the numbers. If you included Chrome pre-rendering, a technique Chrome uses to pre-load Web pages for better effective performance, into the rankings, Chrome would take second place from Firefox, 30 percent to 20 percent, but Chrome’s overall market share would still be slightly declining.

IE gains in latest browser war results. More >

October 31, 2012
by sjvn01
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Windows 8’s Halloween surprise: Metro patent lawsuit

“Boo!” Microsoft has just been sued by a heretofore little-known operating system technology firm, SurfCast for its use of tiles in Windows 8’s Microsoft Design Language interface, a.k.a. Metro.

SurfCast, based out of Portland, Maine, claims to have been the first to design the interface concept referred to as “Tiles:”

Tiles can be thought of as dynamically updating icons. A Tile is different from an icon because it can be both selectable and live – containing refreshed content that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of the underlying information. Tiles can provide dynamic bookmarking – an at-a-glance view of the current status of the program, file, or content associated with it. Tiles enable people to have all their content, applications, and resources, regardless of whether on their mobile device, tablet, computer, or in their Cloud – visualized persistently – dynamically updating.
I bet that sounds familiar. That text could be a description of the Metro interface. As Ovid Santoro, CEO of SurfCast wrote, “We developed the concept of Tiles in the 1990s, which was ahead of its time. Microsoft’s Live Tiles are the centerpiece of Microsoft’s new Operating Systems and are covered by our patent.”

Windows 8’s Halloween surprise: Metro patent lawsuit. More >

October 25, 2012
by sjvn01
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Windows Surface RT: Microsoft’s greatest hardware fiasco ever?

Ed Bott “enthusiastically recommends” the Windows Surface RT.” I think it’s already dead.

Oddly enough, we agree on the main point, “It’s more than an iPad, and less than a PC.” Where we differ is what that means. He sees it putting RT Surface into a middle-ground. I see it as being neither fish nor fowl; it’s not entertaining enough to replace a wildly popular tablet, nor work-friendly enough to replace a laptop.

That has far more to do with the software, Windows RT, than it does the hardware. Windows RT, Windows 8 for ARM, is both a confusing mess and crippleware.

To be exact, Windows RT is a limited version of Windows 8 that runs on ARM-based devices, not on traditional PCs. It is compatible with most, but not all, of the Metro-style apps that also run on Windows 8. Windows RT will not run any desktop Windows applications beyond the applications that are bundled with the operating system.

Windows Surface RT: Microsoft’s greatest hardware fiasco ever? More >

October 24, 2012
by sjvn01
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Nice iPad mini Apple, but I’m keeping my Nexus 7

I have to say I was impressed. The new iPad with its extremely fast A6X chip looks great, pity it just instantly obsoleted every iPad 3 out there, but… oh wait. That”s the new iPad 4. That’s not what Apple is running up against the Nexus 7. Instead, they’re putting out the iPad mini. Seriously? That’s just sad.

True, Apple senior vice president for marketing Phil Schiller may say that the Nexus 7 is an example of how “Others have tried to make smaller tablets, but they’ve failed“, but that’s just showing that the Apple reality distortion field is still at work within Apple’s halls. The truth, as everyone knows who’ve used the Nexus 7, is that it’s a great tablet. Heck, without it and its relatives such as the Nook and Kindle, Apple never would have produced a 7” tablet.

Remember Steve Jobs? Back in 2010, he said “we [won’t] make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit [a lower] price point. It’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software. As a software driven company, we think about the software strategies first.” The only way a 7-inch tablet could work would be “if they came with sandpaper to file down human fingers to a quarter of their size.”

I wonder what changed Apple’s mind. It couldn’t be because of all those failed smaller tablets could it? As far as I can tell my fingers are the same size as they ever were. 

Nice iPad mini Apple, but I’m keeping my Nexus 7. More >

October 23, 2012
by sjvn01
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Apple to fix iOS Wi-Fi problems

Apple’s dirty little secret, which was kept out of October 23rd’s iPad 4 and iPad mini’s limelight, is that iOS 6, the new and popular operating system for iPhones and iPads, still has serious Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networking problems. Now, though, it appears that a new version of iOS 6, iOS 6.01, will be fixing these problems in the next few weeks.

According to BGR, Apple sources confirm that they’re testing iOS 6.01. I’ve also been told by sources at one of the major telephone carriers that testing has indeed begun. This update will fix numerous problems. These include the horizontal lines bug, a problem with the camera’s flash not going off, and other minor problems. The real news as far as I’m concenred is that it will will fix iOS 6’s spotty Wi-Fi and fix the truly costly problem of iOS 6 using expensive 3G or 4G instead of free Wi-Fi when both are available.

Apple to fix iOS Wi-Fi problems. More >