Samsung: Time For A Tablet Rethink

About a year ago Samsung looked like it was going to be a major player in the tablet market. The original Galaxy Tab had a small but committed market and was pumping in some reasonable sales figures.

Problem is that sometime in the last 12 months Samsung decided that the way forward was to flood the market with different tablet devices. The company went from having a strong line-up, with 10.1" and 7" versions of the Tab both outgunning the iPad and other Android tablets; to having too many different tablets all occupying different niches of the same market. Its a strategy that confuses potential buyers and has hurt sales. HTC has a similar problem in the phone market right now.

Samsung needs to get back to basics - two models at the small and large ends of the scale, consistent connections and accessories and a road map that doesn't obselete its own products within weeks of launch.

iPad 3 Announcement March 7th

Apple has been inviting its favoured technorati to an event on March 7th where iPad 3 will arrive along with an updated Apple TV.

The big news on the iPad looks to be a newer higher resolution display, which is all well and good but for me doesn't address the shortcomings that make the iPad less than useful. Sure for the things that its good at: web browsing (minus Flash sites of course), email and some very nice creation apps its very good.

Doesn't stop some very serious niggles - unlike Google's tablets which happily run apps designed for phones, the iPad makes a real hash of running non-optimised apps - a clumsy solution which is only likely to get worse with the addition of a second iPad-only resolution...

I don't doubt that the new iPad will be joyously welcomed by the faithful. Me I look upon it as a missed opportunity and I don't see the new one fixing that...

Shock! Horror! Boxers Fighting Each Other

It might just be me, but seriously do we need quite so many histrionics about a pair of boxers getting into a bit of a ruck?

I mean is there no real news to mawkishly drag out through 24 hour news channels?

Is The Stylus Making A Comeback? Looks Like It...

The Samsung Galaxy Note has made something of an impact since its unveiling late last year. The 5.3" phone/tablet hybrid makes a virtue out of its stylus and its ability to take handwritten notes and annotate documents.

Despite being told for years that stylii are the devil's spawn and nobody could ever countenance using one ever again, it appears that people are suddenly realising that one of the key benefits of having a large touchscreen is its ability to mimic a piece of paper. Anyone who has previously used a Windows Mobile device with Evernote will have spent the last few years bemoaning the loss of that functionality.
 
In fact its very noticeable that the tech forums which were populated by WM and Palm users of yore, pre-dating the iPhone revolution, have seen massive take-up of the Galaxy Note by contributors.
 
Now the arrival of a 5" screen hybrid from LG promises to tip the genre into a mini-bandwagon. In the same way that the Note has moved on the game from HTC's Flyer, the first intrepetation of a touchscreen/sylus combo.

Which is excellent news, especially if you've ever tried to use a finger, hot-dog sausage or capacitive stylus to try and take notes on your finger friendly screen!

The iPhone 4S Mess

It's hard to label a phone that's sold so well a dud, but my iPhone 4S has been so incredibly poor recently that I find it hard to call it anything else.

It's a shame because up until three weeks ago things had been going fine. Then one afternoon it decided to go into meltdown - literally. I felt a burning sensation on my leg and when I pulled the phone from my pocket it was red hot and impossible to hold. I powered it down completely and once it had cooled later that evening restarted it. All seemed fine. Then the battery discharged from full to empty over the course of six hours one night - causing me to miss an alarm.

Having been an iOS 5.01 hold out up until that point I was forced to comply and things have gone downhill steadily since. Battery life? Gone to pot. Network connectivity? Poor. Internet access? Completely goosed - the browser will refuse to load certain websites and tells me that there's no connectivity; the App Store is inaccessible and Spotify spends half it's time thinking its offline.

Apple: it just works? No it doesn't it's not even close. Fix the 4S now.

2012 F1 Cars Are Super Ugly

I can't imagine anyone is going to be putting the current crop of F1 cars onto their walls as posters. The new stepped nose design (adopted by all but Mclaren) has to be the worst thing advance in F1 design since the turning vane/barge board.

Now I understand that fast is beautiful in the eyes of the designers, teams and drivers; but just how twisted have the regulations become when even painted Ferrari red the just look like Joe Bugner after another mauling?

Android Fragmented? Not So Much

Fragmentation? Its a terrible problem on the Android platform - or at least so the naysayers would have you believe.

Localytics, though, has data which pretty much refutes this. In fact 96% of Android handsets are running Android 2.2 or 2.3 (Froyo and the updated Gingerbread) - with the majority on 2.3. Not the latest version I grant you, but given that Android 4.0 has only appeared on one handset so far - the wonderful Galaxy Nexus - that's hardly surprising.

Details here - including some information on screen size which suggests that bigger is exactly what customers want...

The Verge Gives HD2 The Plaudits

The phone that transcends its roots, the HTC HD2 has been honoured by The Verge. Originally shipped with Windows Mobile 6.5 (the first Windows Mobile device with a capacitive screen) the HD2 has been given unofficial ROMs running the latest versions of Android and WP7.

As well as being versatile, the HD2 has set the design language for HTC since its release, in fact one of the likely reasons that HTC had such a poor end to 2011 was probably it's failure to move designs away from the basic HD2 template.

You can read the full article at
http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2782733/status-symbols-htc-hd2

What's Wrong With HTC Sense?

There are a lot of people complaining about HTC Sense - how it delays the launch of Android updates and assists in the fragmentation of Android.

What nonsense!
 
Sense does a fantastic job of giving HTC phones a consistent look and feel and a set of widgets that look like they were designed by the same team.

Those people who complain are probably the same ones who moan about Android phones having a less well interface the iOS or WP7.
 
Sense is a well designed and thought out UI which makes for a positive user experience and gives a consistent face to Android phones from HTC. The improvements in user experience over the life of the phone more than make up for any delays in delivering updates.

Fabio Capello Takes The High Ground - English Press Fails To Notice

So the John Terry affair ends with England manager Fabio Capello tendering his resignation to the FA, who were glad to accept it.

The English press has painted this as a result of Capello's outburst on Italian TV at the weekend, where he criticised the FA's decision to strip Terry of the England captaincy. The barely hidden subtext is that the smarmy Italian has been booted out for his stance.

And of course the press's desire to have Harry Redknapp in the job can now be realised at least six months early.

Yet the case remains that Capello's point is valid - Terry has been convicted without trial - and Capello's backing of his captain speaks of loyalty beyond the undertanding of the tabloid trash - and, bizarrely, the BBC.

Were Terry to be found guilty do we think that Capello would have continued to back him? Based on his previous problems - adultery with a team-mate's ex - which lost him the captaincy, I'm guessing not...

Why The FA Is Wrong About John Terry

The Football Association has decided to strip John Terry of the captaincy of the England football team following allegations that he racially abused another player during a game for his club. Terry will face charges in court relating to the offence later this summer.
 
This is wrong in so many ways.
 
As far as I am aware the UK still retains the legal principle of the presumption of innocence, the FA's actions reverse the principle and condemn the man before a court has had a chance to decide his fate.
 
Secondly, there's an air of hypocrisy in the way he has been stripped of the captaincy yet still remains eligible to play for the team. Either the FA has judged him and he should be barred from the team or they await the trial and allow England manager Fabio Capello to choose whether he remains captain or not.
 
Fabio Capello's comments on Italian media criticising the FA have been themselves roundly condemned - mostly by the BBC - yet the BBC website has been inundated with support for Capello's position.
 
Racial abuse is something that must be stamped out, but not at the cost of our historical and legally prevailing rights. Should John Terry be found guilty under our judicial process then he should be punished at that time. Not by a lynching mob in the ivory towers of the FA and the BBC.

Would You Compromise Capability For Battery Life?

Asus has done a magnificent job of making its Transformer Prime stretch out the battery hours - the claim is that 18 hours ae possible and I have no problems believing that based on my experiences so far.

Which given the size difference between the Asus and regular ultraportables begs the question: would you forego some functionality to have a device that runs forever in an ultraslim form factor?

Its a compromise worth considering. Unless you need to run a particular piece of software that only runs on Mac or PC the limitations aren't huge. The Android Market contains software to do just about anything you might want to do on a portable device, from development to mind maps, note-taking to game playing. The very capable browser also means that most web tools are available to you as well - even if there are some limitations in using a touch orientated browser to access mouse driven web content.

The payback is formidable. Against the MacBook Air for example, the Prime allows you to pocket £350, has build quality and aesthetics close to the Apple product; can be used to do pretty much anything the MBA can, yet weighs less and lasts two and a half to three times as long on one charge...

Will the new breed of Ultrabooks offer a better compromise? I'm guessing not...

So, a compromise worth making?

Will Apple Take A Gamble On iPad 3?

It's hard to argue that the iPad has been a success - despite many having reservations when it was first announced.

Interestingly the big blow-up in iPad sales came with the announcement of the iPad 2, which added features which Apple had denied were necesary on the first model. A similar thing happened with the iPhone 3G and its noticeable that Apple have improved the iPhone platform by stealing concepts from its rivals, usually after claiming that they were pointless in the first place. A similar process led up to the introduction of the very netbook-like MacBook Air 11"...

So with iPad 3 due for announcement very soon how big a risk is Apple prepared to take with its big selling device? Playing safe and releasing an incremental upgrade isn't really an option - after all Apple's share of a (admittedly growing) tablet market has fallen from near 100% to  tnear 50% in the last 18 months.

So what options are out there for Apple?

The Smaller iPad.

Despite Steve Jobs dismissal of the original Galaxy Tab, the smaller form factor has become very popular. The ability to slip into a back pocket, coat pocket or purse without requiring a conscious decision to carry a seperate tablet pack is appeaing on many levels. A 7" iPad would sell millions without necessarily cannibilising the full size device's sales.

The Widescreen iPad.


The iPad's screen's 4:3 aspect ratio isn't great for movie viewing as it means large black bars top and bottom of the video or a cropped view. A switch to a widescreen would also mean that Apple could move the charge/sync port to the long edge of the iPad making keyboard docks significantly more useful. The downside of this one would be the change in screen resolution, which would add a fourth screen size and third format for iOS developers to support. Given the awkward way that iOS handles screen size changes that may be a deal breaker for this one.

The Safe Pair of Hands.


Apple could stick with a 4:3 screen at around 10" and double the existing resolution, giving an easy upgrade path and decent backwards compatibility for existing users. Of course this doesn't mean that there won't be any innovations in the device.

Asus Transformer Prime

My latest technology investment arrived today, courtesy of eBuyer's Saturday delivery service - the Asus Transformer Prime. I was always a big fan of the original Transformer and the new one has moved the game forward considerably.

Ignoring any of the technical changes and improvements, the Prime is a perfect example of a device which is a joy to use and will bring a smile to user's faces when they start to use one. The chassis is spun-aluminium and feels beautiful to the touch. Android turns out to make a wonderful operating system for a laptop device and the speed is something that has to be seen to be believed.

From a technical, aesthetic and usability point of view there's nothing stopping the Transformer Prime becoming as big a hit as the original EeePad... whether enough customers are ready to look past the iPad and go for something different remains to be seen...

I'm Getting Tired Of Apps

Call it fatigue, call it annoyance but whatever it may be its starting to make me long for the good old days when no-one had heard of or used smartphone outside of a small exclusive group of uber-nerds.

There are far too many companies out there doing 'an app' because everyone else is doing one as well. No concept of the value to the business or customer; no real reason to do it either. How many apps have you used recently where the companies web site provided all the same features and information without having to clutter your phone with a single purpose application?

Its not true of all apps and there are some very good pieces of software out there. They're quite hard to find amongst the several hundred pieces of pointless gulf though.

Perhaps having sat in a meeting with some fairly clueless/gullible marketing and business level people who seemed to be sucked in by the ridiculous claims of the company presenting to them has coloured my judgement today, but it should be clear to anybody that going out to buy a solution and then trying to find a problem to wrap it around is a totally arse about face way of doing things.

The most important app on any smartphone should be the browser. We shouldn't have to do more than browse to a page on a website to find the information we're looking for and we certainly shouldn't have to download an app from an app store to find out about your company. Are you listening out there in big business land?