IBM is pushing its Lotus software onto the iPhone, iPod Touch and Macintosh. A beta Lotus Symphony 3.0, IBM’s free OpenOffice-based suite of spreadsheet, presentation and documents software, is now available for the Mac as an alternative to Microsoft Office. And IBM’s offering Lotus Connections and Lotus Sametime on the iPhone as well as the Mac. It says Sametime can be used to build professional networks with social capabilities such as blogs, wikis and microblogging, as well as instant messaging.
So you are looking into Mobility or creating Mobility projects. What 'Tao' should guide you daily? Here are my 10 thoughts to the Mobility way...
So you are looking into Mobility or creating Mobility projects. What 'Tao' should guide you daily? Here are my 10 thoughts to the Mobility way...
On Monday I wrote an article that put my initial thoughts and findings together on the newly announced iPad's. It included my belief that the current mass of iPhone Developers are excited & poised to adopt iPad, not only with their current applications on the App Store, but creating new applications to take advantage of the iPad... A New app 'gold rush' gathering momentum!
On Monday I wrote an article that put my initial thoughts and findings together on the newly announced iPad's. It included my belief that the current mass of iPhone Developers are excited & poised to adopt iPad, not only with their current applications on the App Store, but creating new applications to take advantage of the iPad... A New app 'gold rush' gathering momentum!
RealVNC has launched its new VNC Viewer, an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows you to connect to and take full control of a computer anywhere in the world. Available to download from the App Store, VNC Viewer makes it possible to run applications, access documents and change settings on any Mac OS X, Windows, Linux or UNIX computer, just as though you were sitting in front of it.
RealVNC has launched its new VNC Viewer, an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows you to connect to and take full control of a computer anywhere in the world. Available to download from the App Store, VNC Viewer makes it possible to run applications, access documents and change settings on any Mac OS X, Windows, Linux or UNIX computer, just as though you were sitting in front of it.
Another episode of As The E-Book Turns wrapped this week, with Amazon locked in a page-turning battle with the publishing industry. The plot twists are many, but here's a quick outline: Amazon wants to continue charging $10 for e-book versions of most new titles and bestsellers, but the industry's leading publishers think that price is too low. Macmillan, for instance, wants $13 to $15 for most of its e-book titles, a demand that Amazon conceded to last week. Hachette, another major publisher, also plans to drop Amazon's $9.99 price model, and would rather see many e-books in the $15 range. HarperCollins has made a similar move. Meanwhile, the industry just gained an ally in Apple, which has agreed to let publishers set the price of e-books designed for its new iPad tablet. It's no surprise that publishers would want higher e-book prices, particularly for hot new bestsellers. But their strong-arm efforts to eradicate Amazon's consumer-friendly pricing aren't a good way to grow a nascent e-book market (and e-reader) market.
Another episode of As The E-Book Turns wrapped this week, with Amazon locked in a page-turning battle with the publishing industry. The plot twists are many, but here's a quick outline: Amazon wants to continue charging $10 for e-book versions of most new titles and bestsellers, but the industry's leading publishers think that price is too low. Macmillan, for instance, wants $13 to $15 for most of its e-book titles, a demand that Amazon conceded to last week. Hachette, another major publisher, also plans to drop Amazon's $9.99 price model, and would rather see many e-books in the $15 range. HarperCollins has made a similar move. Meanwhile, the industry just gained an ally in Apple, which has agreed to let publishers set the price of e-books designed for its new iPad tablet. It's no surprise that publishers would want higher e-book prices, particularly for hot new bestsellers. But their strong-arm efforts to eradicate Amazon's consumer-friendly pricing aren't a good way to grow a nascent e-book market (and e-reader) market.
"We did not enter the search business. [Google] entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them... I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing. This don't be evil mantra - It's bullshit." - Steve Jobs at an employee Town Hall the other day according to Wired, MacRummors et al although he may have said "load of crap" not "bullshit"; sources vary. Jobs reportedly means to use "aggressive updates" to stay way out front of the Android phone.
"We did not enter the search business. [Google] entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them... I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing. This don't be evil mantra - It's bullshit." - Steve Jobs at an employee Town Hall the other day according to Wired, MacRummors et al although he may have said "load of crap" not "bullshit"; sources vary. Jobs reportedly means to use "aggressive updates" to stay way out front of the Android phone.
I left SYS-CON offices in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey right on time before the snow storm closed the airports. These live pictures below show East Saddle River Road through my iPhone on my way to the airport.This driver in front of me slipped and hit the side walk outside Yossi's Deli, at the corner of East Saddle River Road and Lake Street. As I arrived in Ft Lauderdale, I found out that pilot Eric was waiting for me to take me to Cat Cay. The following picture is the Gun Cay lighthouse, directly North of Cat Cay and South of Bimini on our approach to Cat Cay. You can see the landing strip far left.
Social media marketing is hot hot hot. While the disjointed components have risen and fallien with the VC tide for some time now, a coherent roadmap is emerging for marketing a brand, product or service via social media. No longer just a fad for college kids or a way to virally promote your fart app, social media is emerging as a powerful and rapidly growing low-cost, high-reward force for driving sales. The price tag is appealing and there is no barrier to entry. With billions now being bet by the major players on the need for brands to have a mobile ad strategy, social media has evolved in the wings from a nice-to-have to a must-have for every company that sells anything. From a local pizza joint to a consumer packaged goods goliath, the power of human interaction to spread a marketing message though trusted social networks at very low cost is suddenly here (and increasingly measurable).
Social media marketing is hot hot hot. While the disjointed components have risen and fallien with the VC tide for some time now, a coherent roadmap is emerging for marketing a brand, product or service via social media. No longer just a fad for college kids or a way to virally promote your fart app, social media is emerging as a powerful and rapidly growing low-cost, high-reward force for driving sales. The price tag is appealing and there is no barrier to entry. With billions now being bet by the major players on the need for brands to have a mobile ad strategy, social media has evolved in the wings from a nice-to-have to a must-have for every company that sells anything. From a local pizza joint to a consumer packaged goods goliath, the power of human interaction to spread a marketing message though trusted social networks at very low cost is suddenly here (and increasingly measurable).
Yesterday, I finished my dinner in a French restaurant with traditional crème brulee. This time I’ve also ordered a small glass of sauterne wine. Then we went to our friend’s house to polish it with some good old port.
But no matter what software developers drink or eat in February 2010, one way or the other the conversation will slide into a No-Flash-Player-on-iPad discussion.
Apple pretends that they will never allow Flash Player on Steve’s OS (SOS), because it’s buggy. Adobe’s CTO, Kevin Lynch, states that Apple doesn’t cooperate.
After the third round, I made a statement that when the dust settles, everyone will thank Steve Jobs for forcing Adobe to make Flash Player better and faster, which is a win-win situation for all application developers.
My drinking buddy responded that Adobe has a tiny group of hard core developers who work on Flash Player, have deep understanding of its internals, have the status of sacred cows, and Kevin Lynch can’t put pressure on them regardless of what Steve says or wants.
When I hear about any prima donnas in IT, I’m getting easily excited. I believe that if any developer in any IT team starts exhibiting the prima donna symptoms, there’s only one solution to this disease: s/he has to be fired.
My opponent was not so sure and replied, “You can’t fire the entire team”.
Don’t get me wrong, I not saying that the Flash Player team has prima donnas nor that Adobe’s management can’t control them, but after a couple of old ports it was interesting to dig into this direction a bit deeper.
I told my friends a story that happened with my friend Gregory ten years ago. Back than he had several gas stations in our state of New Jersey. You may not know, but NJ drivers are not allowed to pump gas themselves. You just pull up to a pump, the gas attendant stops by, and you say, “Fill up, Regular please”. At least I say the same phrase during the last fifteen years – I lease cars and don’t buy premium gasoline.
Gregory had about 20 attendants working for him. All of them were relatives from some Asian country. They were self-managed, low maintenance, and hard working people. One day, the leader of the clan came to Greg and demanded raising salaries to all of them. Greg refused. Then the envoy said, “If you won’t raise our pay, we’ll all quit”
Greg quietly responded, “Go back and tell everyone that all of you are fired as of this very moment.” Greg had to temporarily lock his gas stations - he went to South Jersey, where the pays were lower, hired and relocated 20 new gas attendants. Greg has balls. Yes, he lost money, but didn’t bend to blackmailers who believed that they were irreplaceable.
You’ll be surprised, but situation in the job market of gas attendants is very similar to what I see in IT. It’s a pretty small world, all local recruiters know you, and employers require references from the previous place of work.
Two weeks later, the blackmailer came back to Greg begging to hire them back, but it was a little to late.
No, I don’t think that developing Flash Player is as easy as pumping gas. But the source code of the latest build Flash Player is safely stored in a central repository, and if, for any hypothetical reason, Adobe executives will need to replace the entire team, they can do it within a month or so. There are so many brilliant programmers in this country, you wouldn’t believe it.
Sorry Flash Player folks, for using your team for illustrating my attitude to prima donnas in IT. I believe that you did a great job with this VM (trust me, I have something to compare with). But our conversation about your team did take place yesterday, and I've openly shared it with my readers. Yes, there is always room for improvement, but I’m sure there are plenty of non-technical reasons for the current situation in Mac OS and SOS.
I simply don’t like prima donnas. Plus sauterne. Plus the old port…
Siri provoked a flurry of interest last summer, and presumably not just because CTO Tom Gruber took part in one of my podcasts. With their genesis inside a big DARPA-funded Artificial Intelligence project, their talk of emergent Virtual Personal Assistants and their slick iPhone-powered demonstrations, the company ticked more than enough of the right boxes [...]
Siri provoked a flurry of interest last summer, and presumably not just because CTO Tom Gruber took part in one of my podcasts. With their genesis inside a big DARPA-funded Artificial Intelligence project, their talk of emergent Virtual Personal Assistants and their slick iPhone-powered demonstrations, the company ticked more than enough of the right boxes [...]
In my earlier post, when I railed against the iPad, it was mostly personal disappointment and letdown. I was disappointed by the technical specs, most notably the aspect ratio, and the exclusion of USB, HDMI, and webcams. Those items can all be added on in later iterations (which I firmly believe they will – perhaps [...] Related posts:
In my earlier post, when I railed against the iPad, it was mostly personal disappointment and letdown. I was disappointed by the technical specs, most notably the aspect ratio, and the exclusion of USB, HDMI, and webcams. Those items can all be added on in later iterations (which I firmly believe they will – perhaps [...] Related posts:
Here's yet another well written blog by Rachel Luxemburg that looks like a petition to Steve Jobs. So?
Such write-ups won't have any effect onApple's decision about Flash Player. It's a cold blooded decision, and if the real reason for not letting FP on iPhone OS is to keep control of the applications and have a cut from the iStore, writing blogs and I'm also a big fan of Adobe software typing this comment on MBP and want Flash Player to be on iPhone and iPad. So?
Open letters won't help. Begging won't help. For some reason, Leonard Cohen's words come to mind:
Ah but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or Id crawl to you baby
And Id fall at your feet
And Id howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And Id claw at your heart
And Id tear at your sheet
Id say please, please
Im your man
If Flash Player really performs poorly on iPhone OS, as John Gruber describes , than it can be resolved only by two people: Apple's and Adobe's CEOs.
Lee Brimelow, a respected Adobe evangelist published a really cool blog showing how some Web sites will look like if the Flash Player support is turned off in the Web browser. So? There's an iPhone version of CNN that shows videos using Apple's QuickTime instead of Flash Player.
If Apple will insist on having 100% control as to what software can run on iPhone/iPad, they'll force third-party developers to bend and find the way to play by the rules. If you are a small software vendor, do you want to ignore the market of 75 million of hot devices (iPhones)? Even if you are a large software vendor, you still don't want to ignore this market, and Adobe found a brilliant way to get into developing software for iPhone OS and offering it in iStore in ActionScript in CS5.
Something's gotta give.
I’m proud to consider myself an upper middle class American . Why am I so proud about it? Because I haven’t been born in an upper middle class American family. I came to the USA 18 years ago with $200 in my pocket on a visitor’s visa. Don’t rush reporting on me to the Immigration authorities. I was legal in this country each and every day since. Then came the work visa (H1B), after that the green card, and back in 2001, I became an American citizen. Our family consists of me (silver 15” MacBook Pro), two sons (black 13” MacBook and a silver 13” MacBook) and my wife (post World War II Windows PC own by her employer, a filthy rich international bank). I also have an iPhone.
I’m proud to consider myself an upper middle class American . Why am I so proud about it? Because I haven’t been born in an upper middle class American family. I came to the USA 18 years ago with $200 in my pocket on a visitor’s visa. Don’t rush reporting on me to the Immigration authorities. I was legal in this country each and every day since. Then came the work visa (H1B), after that the green card, and back in 2001, I became an American citizen. Our family consists of me (silver 15” MacBook Pro), two sons (black 13” MacBook and a silver 13” MacBook) and my wife (post World War II Windows PC own by her employer, a filthy rich international bank). I also have an iPhone.
While the market figures out whether it wants one of those new iHyped Apple iPad tablets when they get here in March, what it would do with it if it got one, whether it will kill the Kindle, threaten netbooks or backfire on Apple, note that it’s the first time Apple is using its own chip, supposedly giving purpose to its 2008 PA Semi acquisition.
While the market figures out whether it wants one of those new iHyped Apple iPad tablets when they get here in March, what it would do with it if it got one, whether it will kill the Kindle, threaten netbooks or backfire on Apple, note that it’s the first time Apple is using its own chip, supposedly giving purpose to its 2008 PA Semi acquisition.
Today was a historic day in computing history. While the techno-geeks will argue for the next several months what this really means and what the Apple iPad is missing or why it’s only a large screen iPod Touch, I’m going to be focused on what I think this really means to some key industries and how Appcelerator can help. From my perspective, web developers are talking up and overwhelmingly are planning new application experiences for the new iPad. We surveyed just a small sample of our community of developers and found that over 90% of them plan on building an iPad application in the next 12 months.