The Verge reports that Google might be designing its own processor chips.
Seems like Google is learning the importance of being in control of the production processor chip. Apple has control over the its chip architecture and iOS structure, hence it is able to optimise hardware and software for best performance.
We’ve all heard how the U.S. patent system can be incredibly frustrating, but it’s probably worse than you think.
The Power of No. This simple change could fix the patent system—but it’ll never happen.
What was the great inventive step that convinced the patent examiner to finally issue a patent, the inventive step that is apparently worth hundreds of millions of dollars from Samsung? Apple added the word “continuous” to the patent claims: To unlock the cellphone under Apple’s patent, the user’s finger had to maintain continuous contact as it moved across the touch screen. It appears that Apple had worn the patent examiner down. Of course, the prior patents implicitly involved continuous motion without explicitly using that language. And people using Neonode’s phone had kept their fingers continuously in contact with the touch screen. But this language tweak gave the examiner a fig leaf to cover his weak justification for granting the patent. This was still a patent that should not have been issued. But the grant had consequences: Four months after the patent was issued, Apple sued Samsung.
I personally advocate net neutrality, though I can understand that the concept will present its own set of challenges.
This specific report we’re discussing isn’t too a big deal, since the porn filter is just turned on by default and users have the option of disabling it, but how many users actually bother to tweak the default settings of their devices?
Maybe next we’ll see ISPs block websites of its competitors, preventing you from checking out competing packages.
New ISP customers will have porn filters turned on automatically
New customers, says BT in a press release, “[will] have to make a choice on whether or not to activate the parental controls when setting up their internet connection for the first time,” adding that “the option of having the controls implemented is pre-selected.” You’ll either have to confirm that you’re happy with the pre-selected protection level, or actively choose to change the settings, which BT is keen to remind you might expose you to “content potentially unsuitable for children.”
WIRED.com reports on Loop, a phone case that turns your phone into a credit card.
“Loop’s technology transmits the same magnetic signal wirelessly, emulating a swipe without any change to the merchant’s card reader,” says Loop CEO Will Gravis.
Like Coin, Loop also comes with a card reader — they call it a “fob” — that plugs into the headphone jack of a smartphone. You swipe your card through the reader to load it into the Loop app. But while the Coin card then uses Bluetooth from the app to transmit data to the separate card device, the Loop app transmits its data straight through the phone case.
Good idea, but I still favour a solution that is built into the phone rather than a third party one.
I can’t even count the number of times that I’ve opened an app that I want to use to do something quick, only to immediately be nagged by the pop up prompting for my feedback. There are even times when I try to put a star rating and add in some comments, but most of the time I find it troublesome, and I’m not the only with who feels that way.
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has his solution, though I’m pretty sure it’s something that app developers won’t like.
Instapaper founder Marco Arment has also chimed in on this issue.
I’m personally hoping that Apple will revamp the app review mechanism and offer something that isn’t so jarring to the user.
Attention Developers and Publishers: Apple is Not Your Publicist
But in not recommending the modal prompt, this still leaves the problem open. How do developers solicit reviews from users without bothering them? In reality, they can’t. This is the Internet and its denizens want what they want the way they want it without any hindrance. To them, review reminders are the pop-up ads of the mobile era, a problem in need of a solution no one has yet to provide. Sure, we hate having to take the one second is requires to dismiss a dialog box, but in all the blog posts whining about this issue, no one has suggested any real ways in which developers can fix it.
Did Intel really have an opportunity to own the tablet market with its very own IPAD? Proabably not, but the article is definitely worth a read.
In short, it’s not that Intel missed on the opportunity to build a tablet. It’s that they never had a chance. The iPad – the Apple one – is successful for many more reasons than its form factor. The touch interface, the OS, the ecosystem, the industrial design, the retail stores, the brand among consumers – all of these played significant roles, and Intel had none of them. There was no opportunity missed, because there never was an opportunity at all.