Displaying items by tag: Apple

A report from ZDNet appears to be showing that Adobe might be dropping future efforts for their Flash Player in the mobile world.  While there are probably more reasons for this than we will ever find out, the one that seems to be getting pushed is that Adobe is giving up on a losing battle. One site that offered this news to its readers even stated that Adobe Flash for mobile had only reached a fraction of the market. Well this is true as ½ is a fraction.

The original push to bring Flash to the mobile market was something of a pride thing between Adobe and Steve Jobs. At the same time we also saw Adobe working on hardware acceleration for some of their other plug-ins like Air and Edge. The thing is that as browsers both mobile and desktop move forward they are discovering (well they really always knew) that plug-ins are gigantic security holes, this is true for ANY plug-in not just Flash. If you follow security in the PC and mobile world at all you will find that this is very true and you will also see that browsers like IE, FireFox, Chrome and Safari are becoming les plug-in friendly. In fact FireFox 8 and the mobile FireFox have kicked out even more plug-ins than before.

This is Adobe’s motivation; they know that in the very near future they are going to have a very hard time getting their Flash plug-in to work at all. So they are kicking their work into CSS and HTML5 into high gear (something they should have done before). You will hear from multiple sites that this is Apple “winning out” or that Steve Jobs was right. Neither of these is completely true.  Apple has yet to realize HTML5 for most of their sites and continues to use their proprietary QuickTime plug in for their movie trailer site and for much of the code on Apple.com (although the mobile is moving to HTML5).  As for Steve Jobs being right; well the Adobe/Apple feud was about more than Flash on the iPhone. There was a time when Adobe optimized everything for Apple. If you wanted to run Photoshop with blazing speed, you bought a Mac. After Apple dumped the Power PC processor and forced Adobe to dump years of effort into optimizing for RISC (reduced instruction set) processors Adobe did an about face and began to optimize for Windows. To make matters worse after Apple jumped on the OpenCL bandwagon Adobe partnered up with nVidia to accelerate their applications with the closed source CUDA platform instead of the open standards found in OpenCL.

So you see this Flash Vs Apple war has been a long time in coming and it was the pride of two very large Egos that brought it out into the open. I am happy to see the plug-in go IF the replacement is more efficient and allows a better cross platform experience.

Source ZDNet

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If the name Charlie Miller sounds familiar to you it should. After all he is one of the researchers that has consistently found bugs and holes in Apple’s vaunted security. He is also a very frequent winner of the Pwn2Own competition where security experts and “hackers” alike compete to find the fastest way of breaking into a computer system. Charlie’s love for Apple and all of its devices has kept him in something of a love-hate relationship with the company for years, but recently things turned for the worse.

After the discovery of a flaw in Apple’s Mobile Safari that allowed the execution of unsigned code Miller reported this to Apple. He did this on the 14th of October and never received any word back on it. To further demonstrate the seriousness (and apparent ease) of this new flaw Miller submitted an app that had the malicious code packed inside. The App, which was disguised as a stock ticker, was approved by Apple and set up for distribution in the walled garden of the iTunes App Store. Miller was able to use the App to execute his code and take control of core functions of the phone.

For his troubles Miller was unceremoniously dropped from the Apple Developers Program for violating the terms of the agreement (which he really did do). The problem with this type of action from Apple is that it makes them seem like they do not want to admit or address serious security issues inside their operating systems. Miller has sent off an email asking for clarification stating “I’m mad, I report bugs to them all the time. Being part of the developer program helps me do that. They’re hurting themselves, and making my life harder.”

Miller feels that this is one of the changes that are coming after the passing of Steve Job and the new management. “I miss Steve Jobs,” he says. “He never kicked me out of anything.”

Source Forbes

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I love a good conspiracy theory on a Monday morning; they can be entertaining, enlightening and also very funny. The one I am talking about is the miss-quoting of Eric Schmidt during Google’s Anti-Trust senate hearings last week. During this hearing he made the statement “Apple's Siri is a significant development--a voice-activated means of accessing answers through iPhones that demonstrates the innovations in search,” He followed this up with this statement “Google has many strong competitors and we sometimes fail to anticipate the competitive threat posed by new methods of accessing information.”

Now I have not been able to determine what order these things were said or what was said in between these two quotes. However, these two items have been used to bolster the idea that Siri is a “threat” to Google’s search empire. In fact at least one media outlet used that as a direct headline.  Now I do think that Google is keeping an eye on Siri as it is now owned wholly by Apple, but I do not think they view it as any type of real “threat”.

The problem comes from that fact (yes it is a fact) that Apple has no search engine framework. Siri takes the voice commands and compares them to internal commands. If it is not something that is part of its internal command structure it then looks it up through Apples authorization servers (which parse Google, Bing, Wolfram Alfa, Yelp etc.) The results that are returned are filtered and controlled by Apple’s servers (just as they are by most other search companies). Now this may sound just like Google or Bing etc., but it is not. The thing is that Apple is using other companies’ search indexing and processing power and then selecting their own results. They also (according to some source) lean heavily toward the Yelp service (for entertainment and restaurants). So while Siri is an interesting tool for Apple (one that they bought from another company) it is not a search engine or search framework. It is nothing more than filtered results from other search engines and services.

The second thing to consider is that this was Eric Schmidt testifying to Congress and trying to show that Google is not in violation of the US Anti-Trust laws. Can you really take these comments as “fact”? At the point you are in front of the Senate Committee you are likely to say anything that will make you look less guilty. His comment also never mentioned Siri as a “threat”. He said, “Apple's Siri is a significant development” which is true and something that no one (other than Andy Rubin at Microsoft) has denied. But Siri is not the only voice command service out there. Just take a quick look through the Android market and you will find quite a few that were in existence before Siri and you will also find that Siri was around as an App long before Apple bought them and then limited the App to just the iPhone 4S through the use of their internal servers.

This one conspiracy theory seems to be a lot more like spin than real fact to me. Siri is an important development, and one that will continue to grow, but there are competitors to Siri already in place and the market is far from Apple controlled. Yes, the search game is changing; but believe me Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others are perfectly safe from Siri.

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Some interesting news on the mobile front this morning; after browsing around the net and looking for something interesting we stumbled across an article on Information Week that was as interesting in it market implications as it is puzzling. The article was an announcement of sorts explaining that the Bing app was now available for iOS and Android, but would not be released for Windows Phone just yet.

Now the thing about this that is puzzling is the need for a “Bing App”. Most people by now will be using a browser that allows you to choose your search engine. If you are looking for Bing then you can select it there and get your fill of Bing on that front. Even Apple’s mobile Safari has Bing as an option now.  We have checked and most modern phones will let you change the web search engine from Google (or whoever) to Bing, so on this front the app seems pretty pointless.

On the other hand if Microsoft is trying to replace the default “phone” search engine they are going to have a rough time. We grabbed the Bing App for Android 2.3 (on our EVO 3D) and it would not replace the default Google search feature that pops up when you press the search icon. It also was not able to replace any of the in-app search functions so we are not sure how this App fits in (unless it is just for those die-hard Bing users).

The final thought is that this might help extend the Bing search into the mobile market and in turn bring people over into the Microsoft fold. However, this is very unlikely as a search engine is not going to change your mind about a mobile phone. So what is up with Microsoft sending out the Bing Search App to Android and iOS? We honestly do not know what they are thinking and are making a guess that someone feels it will help them in the long run (obviously or they would not have done it).

As a final thought, you might hear that Microsoft releasing this for Android and iOS shows no confidence in their own Windows Phone Platform. This is simply not an accurate statement; you see Bing is the default phone search and web search on Windows Phone already. Why make an App when it is already there. Like we said, this one is both interesting and odd.

Oh, and one last thing… if you have an Android tablet and were thinking about grabbing this, well you might be a little surprised to find out that it is not available to non-3G Android devices. We attempted on two Android tablets and received the same warning. “This item is not available on your carrier”… Not exactly the way to extend your reach in the mobile market now is it…



Source Information Week

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There is no doubt that Apple under the hand of Steve Jobs was a force to be reckoned with. It seemed they were almost untouchable in court and had the freedom to do what they wanted to in the market and in their business dealings. However, in the short weeks since the unfortunate passing of Steve Jobs, Apple has been handed down two very unusual judgments. The first one we told you about a couple of days ago where a Spanish court ruled against Apple in their attempt to label the Spanish corporation Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá as a product pirate.

This loss has now turned into a counter suit for loss of revenue and for damage to the company’s reputation as well as an Anti-Trust complaint against Apple. These two cases have not even started yet so we do not have any new information, but it is significant in the fact that the original indictment filed by Apple used the same argument that Apple has successfully used against Samsung in the EU and in Australia (the product does look like a stretched iPad).

Although this is localized to Spain the ruling does set precedence as now other courts will look to the decisions made in other countries when ruling on similar matters. It is also important to remember that the ban in Australia is not permanent just yet. Although there is a preliminary ban in place the final ruling will not happen for a bit yet. This loss could factor into it. It may also help Samsung in the EU with their appeals there.

Our next unusual loss for Apple comes in the form of a default judgment handed down by a German court which bans the delivery or sale of Apple mobile products in Germany. This judgment was put into effect due to the fact that Apple did not respond in time to the charge that they are infringing on two of Motorola’s patents. The reason Apple chose not to respond is not clear as the have plenty of legal staff to cover this kind of thing. Other sites have reported that Apple does not care about this because they are only the parent company (which the original suit was against) and their local subsidiary (Apple GmbH) is free to continue to sell Apple products as long as they like.   There are two flaws in this thought, the first is obvious; although Apple GmbH is the local subsidiary there are still run by the global parent. If they continue to sell Motorola can argue this and work to get the sales stopped.  The second is the wording of the judgment. It prohibits Apple from “delivering” mobile products into Germany. This means that once Apple GmbH and others run out, well they are out.

There is more to this though. Apple’s German website is nothing more than a redirection to Apple’s US site. Both names are owned by the parent company Apple, Inc. This means that Motorola can have that site taken down in Germany and prevent Apple from selling any mobile product through the web (regardless of where it ships from).

Now we have to remember that this is a default judgment and is by no means final. Apple still has the right to have the case heard and judged on its merits. There is a chance they could win this one yet, but it is odd that they did not answer the first response. We simply do not know why they have chosen not to answer, but it could have something to do with an upcoming hearing into Samsung’s use of FRAND (Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) patents against Apple. Apple is claiming that the patents that Samsung are attempting to use against it fall under this guideline and that upholding those against Apple alone would be anti-competitive (hello pot). If the EU investigates this and finds against Samsung then Apple can use FRAND as a defense in this case. One of the patents that Motorola is using is essential to the operation of GSM, UTMS, 3G. If Apple attempted to use this now and the EU commission rules in favor of Samsung then that defense is out the window.

So we see some things are changing for Apple since the death of Steve Jobs, the question now is; “are the two related?” Most people would like to think they are not, but we tend to think of big companies as their public persona. When you think of Microsoft you think Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer (and his goofy photos). When you think of Apple you think of Steve Jobs. This is an important sub conscious issue that could lead many to look at Apple differently even in court.

We are going to keep an eye on both the EU investigation into the use of FRAND patents and the German case against Apple by Motorola. We will update you of any major changes in either.

Source for information on the Motorola judgment FossPatents

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I love it when the little guy wins and this really is a case of the little guy coming out on top. It seems that Apple would like to strengthen its strangle hold on the tablet market by almost any means necessary. As part of their campaign for global domination Apple went after a small Spanish tablet maker by the name of Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá or as you and I might know them NT-K. They are the designers/makers of an Android based tablet that admittedly looks a lot like the iPad at first glance. Because of this similarity (and because they had success in the EU and Australia against Samsung) Apple filed an indictment against NK-T and actually had shipments of their products seized by customs.

Because this was a customs ban for “copying” a product this caused NK-T to be temporarily put on a list of product pirates, which would cause an almost global ban on these products entering any country.Now Apple has used these tactics and the threat of these actions against other companies with success so they have gotten into something of a pattern. Apple fully expected NK-T to comply with their demands and stop manufacturing the competing product. When NK-T did not they sprang into action and filed their indictment against them.

Now in many other countries our story would have ended with the small company sadly having to stop making their product. However, this time the courts did not see things Apple’s way. In a ruling they found that Apple failed to prove criminal intent or their allegation of deliberate piracy. On top of that NK-T has filed a civil suit asking for damages done to their business and the name of their company. Furthermore they have filed a complaint with Spain’s regulatory body (the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNC)) against Apple for abusive anticompetitive behavior. If this complaint goes through (and it has not been dropped) then it will set a precedent and one that could bolster the defenses/ complaints of other companies that are currently in the legal slime with Apple right now.

We are making attempts to find out more on this and will be following up as it progresses.

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In the weeks since the iPhone 4S announcement and then launch we have read all kinds of articles and heard all kinds of stories. It has been somewhat difficult to sort through much of what is out there and come to a conclusion general or not. The iPhone 4S launched to a less than underwhelmed crowd. Normally the press gets all lathered up when a new Apple product launches, but this time things were not the same. Even with this lukewarm reception the consumers line up to buy them.  The after seeing the reception from the consumers the press worked overtime to make up for its stance on the iPhone 4S. They came out with articles about Siri, The new UI, the Speed of the new Dual Core A5 and more. Still there are issues with the iPhone and due to the much wider audience and customer base they are coming out faster than ever.

This is what we know so far. On launch day the iPhone 4S hit the market and within days the troubles began…  

The first up is poor 3G speeds when on the Sprint network. Both Apple and Sprint have acknowledged the issue with Sprint being the first one to come out about the issue a promise a fix. We are fairly certain that Apple was not pleased with this, but are also just as sure that Sprint did not want to lose any new customers to that 30 money back policy they have.  So the issue was out on the table and now a solution needs to be found. Comparing even an older Android Phone to an iPhone on the Sprint 3G network shows a remarkable difference. Apple wants to say it is iOS5, but the issue is not present in every phone so this one may actually be related to a bad lot of 3G radios. I guess we will find out once Sprint and Apple release their findings.

On top of (and possibly related to) the 3G speed issue are the reports of exceptionally poor battery life. These reports are possibly exaggerated, but some are claiming as few as 4 hours of life. One thing that we have found in common with all of the reports of poor battery life are reports of overheating, signal scanning (when the device continues to try and find a signal even if it has one) and, as listed above, poor 3G and WiFi speeds.

Now, at this point it is important to note that Apple has made some small overtures to the effect that this is an issue with iOS5 and have released iOS 5.0.1 to developers for testing. Here is my problem with this, the symptoms of this all point to a problem with the Radio on the phone. It is either defective and cannot complete the connection to the cellular or WiFi networks it is trying to talk to, or there is a MAJOR flaw in the baseband coding in iOS5 that is causing the system to continually drop the connection instead of keeping it alive.

Personally our feeling is that this is a bad lot of 3G/WiFi radios that managed to get through Q/C (quality control). It might be possible to “fix” this with software, but in the end the device will still have the flaw and its lifespan will probably be shorter than it should be.  We are waiting to see if the new iOS update will do anything for this issue and will let you know what we find.

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Asus is known for taking a concept and running with it. At least in the last few years they have been that way. When the idea of the “netbook” entered the market the thought was a cheap, light device for content consumption that could compete with some of the smaller products from Apple like the iBook. Many companies jumped in on this market bandwagon, but only one really went the whole distance (meaning that most companies stayed in APAC or the EU). Asus decided to develop the EEE line up and then pushed it to the global market.


After this daring move (and in less than three years) Asus went from an unknown on the mobile market to one of the highest rated companies for customer satisfaction (based on return rates and consumer complaints). Now we are seeing something very similar in the tablet market. There is no doubt that Apple owns the lion’s share right now but Asus has put out not just one, but three compelling competitors for the market to feast on. At the very top and for the Windows fan is the EEE Slate EP121 with a dual Core i5 ultra mobile CPU, 4GB of RAM and up to a 64GB SSD for storage. Beneath this we find the Transformer which is a 10.1 tablet with a keyboard/dock and battery. The last in the group is the slider, another tablet and keyboard combination but this one has the keyboard under the display and it… you guessed it slides out for use.

Now you might be wondering why I am giving you a rundown of Asus’ tablet offerings. Well the reason is simple; you cannot understand where a company is going until you know where they have been. Let’s take a look at what we have and what Asus has said publicly to gauge where they are headed in the tablet market for 2012.

For the Windows fans we have the current EEE Slate EP121. This is a great product, but there are many that look at its size and weight as an obstacle. In my experience with it there are times when it is just too big. Added to this is the complete lack of any usable accessories for the product. There are no cases for it, no stands, nothing. It makes using it troublesome for the average user.

Fortunately Asus is working on this issue. We have heard that they are planning at least two Windows 8 tablets and if the information we have is correct one of them will be x86-64 while the other is some form of ARM CPU (most likely Tegra).  This will put the Windows user’s minds at ease.  

For the Android market we know that the Transformer Prime will already hit the market in just 8 days. This device will be thinner, lighter and much more powerful with a quad-core Tegra under the hood. For the rest of the lineup we find that Asus has plans for two “Hero” products in Q1 2012 that will run Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich. One of these (so the rumor goes) could be a 3D display model (or maybe both will be).  nVidia is big on 3D and there have been some outstanding work done to bring the glassless 3D Panels up in quality and down in price. I would not be surprised to see a 3D enabled Quad Core Tegra under the hood of one of these two “Hero” products next year.

What we are seeing is the same thought process that Asus has used again and again with their products. They actually do some good market research and then they use the tried and tested shotgun approach. They launch multiple products and see which ones take off. In the case of the tablet; all three have but for different reasons (because different markets want different things). This is actually a great win for Asus as they can now work to perfect these products like they have done with the EEE PC line up which is now moving into another generation.

This is what Asus does though, we have heard about it since we started our relationship with Asus back in the late 90’s. They were not quite where they are now, but the one thing they talked about consistently and asked about all the time was “what can we do to improve this”. Now they have a much larger market to ask that question of and they also can watch what their competitors do to gain an insight into how to build on their product portfolio. It has been interesting to watch them at work and to also see how their products impact the market (we will talk more about that later).

We will be keeping an eye on the tablet market as well as watching the development of Windows 8 to see how the chips fall and if Asus will become the leader in the “non-Apple” world of the tablet both x86 and ARM.

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Yesterday I wrote an article where I speculated on the reasons that Dag Kittlaus (Co-Founder of Siri) is leaving Apple. In it a mention that it appeared that Apple intentionally limited Siri to the iPhone 4S as there was really not that much to lure consumers to it. By offering a “killer app” like Siri Apple was sure to bring the consumers to the new device. Apple’s comments on the new API were that older devices and even the iPad were not designed with this in mind and/or did not have the hardware to support it.

This has been proven to be a little misleading as there have been groups that have gotten Siri to run on the iPad older iPhones and now even the iPod. Yup, that is right the API that is not supposed to run on hardware other than the iPhone 4S is now operational on the iPod. The people responsible for this are a pair that goes by the names euwars and rudolf77. They put their heads together and did what all the engineers (pronounce that executives) at Apple could not.

Now this is not to say that there are not issues; because Apple’s servers are not allowing the connection from anything that is not an iPhone 4S (again with the control) none of the non-4S devices are having their commands executed. However, as you can see the problem is not the devices it is all Apple. Now, we are certain that since it has only been a matter of a couple of weeks since Siri and the iPhone 4S went live (and we are already seeing Siri ported to many of the Apple family) it really is only a matter of time before someone finds a way to spoof the command calls to the Apple servers and gets all of this working.





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There has been a lot of talk recently about the vast difference between the number of Android tablets on the market (around 6 million) and the number of iPad devices (about 30 million). There have been multiple excuses, causes and items to blame for this difference, but one that has been overlooked at almost every level is simply time. The original iPad launched in April of 2010 by comparison the first Android tables (of comparable size) did not hit the market until early 2011. Yes there were 7-inch tablets and even some terrible ones running Android 2.0 that were 10-inch but most of these were very short lived. By comparison the first real Android tablets running Honey Comb (Android 3.0) were not launched until around February/ March 2011. This put them in the market at the same time the iPad 2 was being delivered. Now, if you think that this did not impact sales you are seriously deluded.  People are always going to go with what they know and trust. At the same time that the iPad 2 was selling out there was also a large number of iPads hitting the second hand markets (eBay, Craig’s List etc.).  This only continued the cycle as people were looking to get these devices from former owners. The next thing that Apple did right was to push these to Target and WalMart.  That put them in line with the “price conscious” consumer. After all, if you can buy it at WalMart it must be a good deal right?

So with over a year head start, better marketing and a firm foot hold in the consumer’s mind Apple now has a 24 million unit lead on the Android Tablet. But, let’s look at where the Android Tablet is in reality. In only 6.5 months Android Tablets have managed to carve a 6 million unit hole into what was once Apple’s own playground. This is pretty impressive considering Apple claims that Android is inferior and that their OS is fragmented. If you doubt that Apple is concerned about the sudden success of the Android Tablet, just look at the number of lawsuits in progress where Apple is asking for an outright ban instead of monetary compensation. That above all is a big indicator of their mindset.

But what has really gotten Apple so bothered about this? After all it will take years (probably 2-3 just like the iPhone) for the Android tablet to overtake the iPad so why is Apple trying so hard to kill them now? To put things simply, Apple has a problem with iOS. There are two of them that have to be maintained. The iOS for the iPad is not the same as the iOS for the iPhone. For a developer this is a nightmare as they have to write two versions of their app if they want to cover both products. This is a headache to say the least. With Android and their tile based UI there is no reason to write for more than one screen size and this is with Android 2.3 and 3.0. When Ice Cream Sandwich(ICS) hits the market the division will be almost nonexistent. A developer will be able to write one app and not worry about different screen sizes or versions. This will be huge (right up there with Android’s full support of Flash) and could be an item that will lure some developers away from the Apple camp.

Of course this is not an indication that Developers will leave en masse especially with the fear of being locked out of Apple’s walled garden. It is an indication that more developers are likely to work with Android as the ROI (Return on Investment) is going to be much higher than what they will get doing double the work for Apple.

Although the convergence of ICS on the Android Based tablet is a step in the right direction, there is still a lot that Google has to do to grab a larger market share. They have to find a way to wall off certain apps for the average consumer while still allowing the freedom to explore to the more technical. I have talked to more than a few people about this and there are major concerns with owning an Android tablet. Most of these have to do with the type of content and the danger of malware in the Market.  Until this can be dealt with it is doubtful that a larger number of people will shift from the safety of Apple’s iTunes garden and enter the jungle that is present in the Market. Google also has to worry about Microsoft entering the ARM based tablet market sometime in late 2012 or early 2013. Personally I think that we will not see a larger adoption of Android tablets until ICS is in full swing. Once that happens and people see what they can have and do versus what they cannot do with the iPad and iPhone things will change.

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