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What do you expect from a bunch engineers?

Written by: Steven Hodson on January 12, 2010

nexus

Joe Wilcox had a long and passionate post yesterday about his fling with the Nexus One. It is in his opinion simply one of the best smartphones he has ever used and yet he is having a hard time wanting to keep it.

He jokingly tells of his first reaction on seeing the Nexus One up close was to look for the “Designed by Dell” logo.

I like what Nexus One does for me, but I don’t love the device. In June 2007, I described the original iPhone as "life changing." The way iPhone responded to touch, to movement made it highly personal. There was something magical about how iPhone’s screen responded to facial proximity. The device knew when not to get in the way and cause unwanted touchscreen actions or phone calls. Nexus One has many of the same features, but there’s something human missing behind them.

What do you expect Joe from a company of engineers. For crying out loud this is the company that slices and dices numbers to pick the right shade of blue to use. This is a company that is obsessed with literally shaving milliseconds off of page load times.

Apple is all about design. Luscious sexy design. No other company can match them on that front and I sincerely doubt anyone will for some time to come. They don’t care if you hate how they do business – just if you fall in love with that sleek sexy gadget in your hand.

I’m not surprised when I hear words like ‘lifeless’, ‘utilitarian’, ‘boring’ when people describe the Nexus One.

Not surprised at all.

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Category: Technology

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Are we really going to fall for this tablet marketing hype?

Written by: Steven Hodson on January 8, 2010

hype Thanks a lot Apple.

Everywhere you turn the tech world is obsessing over the idea that they have a new channel opening up to pump for money. Talk of tablets is everywhere – from blogs to CES.

Sure tablets have a place but it is a place that Microsoft and its hardware partners have been selling to it since 2002, but in the general consumer market it still makes no sense.

It is the typical case of trying to blow up a niche market product into something that makes no sense on a larger scale. While Colin Gibbs at GigaOM wonders if the demand for tablets will ever match the coming supply the current attitude towards tablets in general is still in the oooo and awww cool new toy stage.

Marketers of course play up to this whole new coolness factor. A factor that is being helped along by the industrial design power of Apple and its impending tablet. Does this change the practicality factor of the tablet?

Nope.

When it comes to practicality a screen full of smudged dirty oily fingerprints are the least of the inherent problems with tablets.

fingerprints

Sadly though the answer to this question will probably be a resounding ‘yes’. Practicality be damned.

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Category: Technology

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Hate to pop your so cool Apple tablet hot air bubble but …

Written by: Steven Hodson on January 3, 2010

tablet I’ve pretty much tried to stay out of this whole Apple fanboy daisy-chain lovefest over the possibility of some super duper tablet being announced this month.

Except Robert Scoble just had to go and add his two cents worth about the glory that will soon be in our shaking hands (emphasis is mine).

But someone has already made quite a few of the other arguments I’d make about Joe’s post. That someone is MG Siegler who wrote at Techcrunch tonight “the World Doesn’t Need Someone Telling Us What We Don’t Need In Tech.” MG Siegler ripped Joe a good one, and I agree with MG that Apple is a great company because they are willing to take risks, even some that don’t seem to work out very well.

Well I hate to be the burst everyone’s Apple loving bubbles but the tablet – or slate – or anything you want to call it – isn’t anything new. Nor is Apple the first one to walk down this road – regardless of Scoble’s fandom.

Let’s step back in time shall we.

2001.

Microsoft.

Tablet computer.

The term Tablet PC was made popular in a product announced in 2001 by Microsoft, and defined by Microsoft to be a pen-enabled computer conforming to hardware specifications devised by Microsoft and running a licensed copy of the “Windows XP Tablet PC Edition” operating system or a derivative thereof.

Oh and it’s not just Microsoft, as Linux has been running on tablet computers that don’t exist – well at least not before Apple says they do.

You might want to take that up with companies like Toshiba, Acer. Lenovo and HP.

But then we all know that Scoble thinks that Microsoft is old and decrepit.

Just too bad we’ve forgotten to give credit where credit is due – not everything in our tech world exists because Apple says so.

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Category: Technology

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Google’s Nexus One delivery announced – and I get to pat myself on the back

Written by: Steven Hodson on December 29, 2009

FTW-Kid So all the news that is currently flooding the Web is about the big Android announcement that Google will be making on January 5, 2010 – just before CES. Of course the tech pundits are calling for this to be the official unveiling of the Google Nexus One smartphone.

I can just hear all the deep breaths being taken in the US because we all know this will mean squat for the rest of the world.

All that aside I would like to point out that I called this date in our Cynical Bastards Roundtable podcast when the news about the Nexus One first broke. Well okay not January 5 exactly but I did state in the podcast that it would be on or just before CES. My partners in crime for the podcast, Sean P. Aune and Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins weren’t as willing to go out on the same limb but I think we can agree I called this one right.

Gee between this and my recent post about television being a centerpiece of an major Canadian industry blog post I might have to jack up my consulting fees – well maybe not, since people aren’t all that interested in what un-experts have to say.

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Category: Technology

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Don Dodge: Damn that kool-aid must taste great

Written by: Steven Hodson on November 16, 2009

bridge So, you’ve all heard the news I take it. Don Dodge, formerly of Microsoft, has been scooped up by Google and from the sounds of it it all happened within 90 minutes of the news hitting the web.

While I am happy for Don that he managed to secure a new job so fast (like there was any question about that being a problem) I have to say – after reading only the first couple of paragraphs of his post about the transition my first thought was:

“Fuck that must be some great tasting kool-aid Google is serving up.”

It only took 319 words before the dissing of his previous employer started as well the glowing opinion of his new employer began effusing its way off the page. So in the space of a few paragraphs Dodge goes from being an evangelist for Microsoft products as their “ambassador to startups” to being one of Google’s quickest hires doing exactly the same thing.

Continue reading Don Dodge: Damn that kool-aid must taste great »

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Category: Technology

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Sorry Microsoft but letting Don Dodge go was a mistake

Written by: Steven Hodson on November 4, 2009

Don-Dodge While many folks will consider that during his tenure at Microsoft that Robert Scoble was the voice and face of the “new” Microsoft the fact is he wasn’t alone. The one other really respected Microsoft employee that did more to defend the company than anyone else was Don Dodge, Microsoft’s Director of Business Development for the Emerging Business Team.

Don was the face of Microsoft in the startup community that was constantly travelling and speaking at whatever conference and events that he believed would help promote Microsoft as a changing company. He was a well liked man who gave back from more to the community than he ever took back.

Unfortunately is a highly questionable move Don has found himself among those 800 people that will be getting a pink slip from the company. I find myself agreeing with Michael Arrington when he writes today

My opinion of Microsoft dropped a notch today. A big notch. Don invested years of his time making Microsoft seem more human. He wasted all that time, apparently.

Dumb move Microsoft – very dumb.

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Category: Technology

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