• android,  apple,  google,  microsoft,  motorola

    Google Android: Now With Motorola Inside

    August 16, 2011 /

    Early this morning, Google announced their plans to acquire Motorola Mobility – the Android smartphone OEM.

    Writing for AllThingsD.com, John Paczkowsi states:

    “With its $12.5 billion deal to acquire Motorola Mobility, Google is gaining not only a major Android handset manufacturer, but a vast trove of intellectual property with which to defend it.”

    The punch line here folks is that Google was feeling a little light in the Intellectual Property (IP) department, so they when out and acquired a company that already had a lot of IP build up.  Google intents to use their new found IP and patents to protect not only themselves, but their Android licensees from patent trolls like Microsoft and Apple.

    [Via AllThingsD.com…]

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  • microsoft,  pc,  tablet,  windows

    What Do You Call a Pre-Beta Beta? Silly Rabbit, It’s an Alpha Release

    July 8, 2011 /

    Is Microsoft looking to repeat their Windows Vista mistakes with Windows 8?

    WinRumors writes:

    “Microsoft’s 2012 CES will be full of Windows 8 according to company insiders. Microsoft is expected to deliver a beta copy of the next-generation operating system at its BUILD developer conference in September this year. Microsoft should be ready to deliver a second test copy of Windows 8 to the public at CES 2012. Ballmer will likely demo a number of ARM and Intel based Windows 8 tablets that will hit the market later in 2012 when Windows 8 is generally available.”

    No, that doesn’t sound like they are rushing things at all.  Question: What do you call a September beta release before a January 2012 beta release?  Answer: An alpha release.

    In an unrelated note, Microsoft has hired a “content coach” for Mr. Ballmer’s 2012 CES keynote address.  Is Microsoft suffering from “Steve envy?”

    [Via WinRumors…]

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  • developer,  games,  ios,  iphone,  mac,  mac os x,  microsoft

    Xbox 360 Game Port Tool for iOS, OS X, Android, and the Web

    June 24, 2011 /

    I just saw this over on Boy Genius Report and thoughts of playing Halo on my Mac (without Parallels) started dancing in my head.

    “Programmer Andrew Russell is working on a project that will undoubtedly pique the interest of game developers around the world. Dubbed ExEn, Russell’s open source software allows devs to port XNA games to iOS, Silverlight and in the near future, Android and OS X as well. In practical terms, this software gives developers a much easier way to take games they have built for Xbox 360, Windows or Windows Phone 7 using Microsoft’s XNA framework and port them to the iPhone or iPad, the Web (Silverlight), and soon to Android devices and Mac OS X!”

    [Via BGR.com…]

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  • apple,  ios,  microsoft,  windows phone

    Microsoft To Hold VIP Future of Windows Phone Event

    May 10, 2011 /

    BGR.com is reporting that Microsoft will be holding a VIP media event on May 24 to talk about what’s coming for the next release of their Windows Phone smartphone operating system.

    BGR blogger Todd Haselton writes:

    “We know Mango will offer Internet Explorer 9 with an integrated Twitter experience, better multitasking, and new apps such as Angry Birds, Skype, and Spotify. We’ve also heard that Microsoft will add Bing Audio for identifying music, Bing Vision for scanning bar codes, and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation with Bing Maps, although none of these features have been confirmed by Microsoft just yet.”

    Sounds interesting.  The timing is also interesting to me because Microsoft will be holding their event just days before Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference, at which, they will be talking about the future of the iOS platform, Mac OS X, and hopefully, new cloud based services.

    By the way, over the weekend, I saw that the B&N Nook now supports apps, including the insanely popular Angry Birds game.  Is there any platform out there that Rovio hasn’t invaded yet?

    [Via BGR.com…]

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  • microsoft,  touchpad,  web os

    HP TouchPad to Feature Bing Maps

    April 12, 2011 /

    If some recent photos of HP’s upcoming TouchPad are accurate, webOS fans might be in for a bit of a shock.  It would seem that Google Maps, which has be a part of webOS from version 1.0, will be replaced by Bing Maps in HP’s webOS 3.0 software.

    WinRumors.com writes:

    “It’s not yet clear whether the Bing Maps integration is due to a partnership or deal with Microsoft. HP has been a close partner to Microsoft on its Windows based PCs. Microsoft’s Bing Maps has a lead over Google on 45° “birds-eye” views but lacks the POI and retail data that Google contains.”

    For a long time, I’ve been a Google user, but I’ve been warming up to Bing, if for no other reason, it’s not a Google service.

    [Via WinRumors.com…]

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  • apple,  google,  microsoft,  rumors

    Apple Continues to Offer Support to Employees in Japan

    March 18, 2011 /

    Following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan and with the seemingly imminent threat of an unimaginable nuclear disaster, only one technology company is brave enough to stand up an offer the kind of help their employee need.

    Today, a reported email from Apple CEO Steve Jobs was sent to the company’s employees in Japan offering to help them in their time of national crisis.

    “To Our Team in Japan,

    We have all been following the unfolding disaster in Japan. Our hearts go out to you and your families, as well as all of your countrymen who have been touched by this tragedy.

    If you need time or resources to visit or care for your families, please see HR and we will help you. If you are aware of any supplies that are needed, please also tell HR and we will do what we can to arrange delivery.

    Again, our hearts go out to you during this unimaginable crisis.

    Please stay safe.

    Steve and the entire Executive Team”

    While still unauthenticated, this really seems like the kind of thing that Apple would do for their employees and their families in Japan.

    I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m an Apple fanboy, but I have to ask, where are Microsoft and Google?  Surely they can offer to do the same for their employees?

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  • google,  ios,  ipad,  iphone,  microsoft,  touch

    Setting Up Your iOS Device with Exchange Push for Email, Calendar, and Contacts

    November 21, 2010 /

    Yesterday I wrote a blog post about the upcoming iOS 4.2.1 software upgrade for the Apple iPad.  (iOS 4.0 is already available for current model iPhone and iPod touch units.)

    In the article, I talked about support for multiple Microsoft Exchange Active Sync (EAS) accounts.  EAS is a protocol that you can license and use from Microsoft to sync email, contacts, and calendar data from the email server down to a client, like an iPhone or iPad.

    If you use a Google account with your iOS 4.0 or later iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can keep your email, contacts, and calendar in sync all the time and across multiple devices, such as an iPad, and a MacBook Pro, for example.

    If you want to learn how to set EAS up on your iOS device, just follow Google’s directions found in their article: Mail, Calendar, & Contacts: Set Up Your Apple Device for Google Sync.

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  • att,  microsoft,  sprint,  t-mobile,  verizon,  windows phone

    No CDMA Windows 7 Phones Until 2011

    September 19, 2010 /

    While I was off vacationing, it appears that Microsoft has stated that there will be no Windows 7 smartphones released for Verizon or Sprint in 2010.

    “For the worldwide market, the vast majority of phones are GSM phones, so we focused on GSM first and then plan to deliver an update that will have great CDMA support in the first half of 2011. That’s device availability in the first half and we’re very confident of that. That’s probably a conservative estimate,” said Microsoft senior product manager, Greg Sullivan.

    After Microsoft’s disaster with the Kin, I’m all for letting them test out their new mobile operating system in “the worldwide market” before it comes to Verizon or Sprint.  The silver lining is that customers on AT&T and T-Mobile have a chance of getting their hands on a Windows 7 phone before anyone else her in the States.

    [Via BoyGeniusReport.com…]

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