Netizen

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Nexus 4 Is Way Too Cool

The Nexus 4 Is A Beautiful Thing
Nexus 4: My First Smartphone

An iPhone Lover’s Confession: I Switched To the Nexus 4. Completely.

Over the past few years I’ve invested a lot into Apple’s products and services.

If you come by my house, you’d find four of the latest Apple TVs, two iMacs, the latest MacBook Air, a MacBook Pro, more than five AirPort Express stations and Apple’s Time Capsule. You could touch every single iPhone, from the first up to the iPhone 5, iPads ranging from first generation to fourth and we recently added two iPad minis.

My iTunes Library comprises well over 8,000 songs – all purchased via the iTunes Store. No matter whom you would ask, everybody will confirm that I’m what some folks call an Apple fanboy.

The reach of Apple’s products goes beyond my personal life.

As the co-founder of Germany’s largest mobile development shop, I’m dealing with apps – predominantly iOS powered – in my daily professional life.

Driven primarily by the business I run, I tried to give Android a chance more than once.

In various self-experiments, I tried to leave my iPhone at home for the Motorola Droid, the Nexus One, the Samsung Galaxy S II and S III – and always switched straight back to the iPhone. None of those Android devices have worked for me – yet.
And then I got the Nexus 4.

Putting it into a single line: The latest version of Android outshines the latest version of iOS in almost every single aspect.

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Android came before the iOS, although the iOS, upon launch, was better than the Android experience. But all that is past tense. Android is securely in the lead now. And the number of apps on the Android platform is a key indicator that is the case.

Google Play will hit a million apps in June (probably sooner than the iOS app store)

Google Play now has 800,000 apps and is growing faster than the iOS app store...... Google Play was growing revenues twice as fast as Apple’s app store. And with the fact that while it took eight months for Google Play to go from 200,000 to 400,000 apps, it took only slightly longer to get from 400,000 to its current 800,000 — meaning that Google is almost maintaining its rate of growth despite the massive increase in absolute numbers.

Samsung: Top Tech Company

If Google has the best apps on the iPhone and Samsung's next smartphone leaves the iPhone in the dust, then is Samsung among the great tech companies of today?

The Fifth Horsemen: Samsung

We all know the “four horsemen” of tech: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google .... Microsoft simply no longer belongs on that list. .... there’s an omission that’s becoming a glaring one: Samsung. .... Samsung is not an American company (it’s South Korean). Nor did it start as a scrappy technology startup that set out to change the world (it started in 1938 as a local produce trading company). Nor does it operate like an American technology company (the entire company is and has been run largely by one family .... Samsung isn’t even just a technology company .... there’s a decent chance that it will end up being the most important tech company of 2013. .... Samsung is by far the most important Android partner. Not only does it dominate from a market share perspective, it’s really the only Android OEM that is actually making any money. .... posted about $155 billion in revenue in 2011. That’s almost exactly the amount of revenue that Apple posted in 2012. Samsung should come in closer to $190 billion when its fiscal 2012 comes to a close. .... $100 billion for Amazon, Facebook, and Google in 2012 ..... unlike Amazon and Facebook which make little or no profit, Samsung is hugely profitable. $12 billion in profit for 2011 should move closer to $20 billion in 2012. That’s not a ton compared to Apple ($55 billion in profit in 2012), but it should be roughly twice as much profit as Google pulls in for the year. ..... it is the most important piece of the Android ecosystem beyond Google. And it seems that the company is at least exploring the possibility of taking a step back from that ecosystem, or hedging its bet. That could be the story of 2013 ..... Samsung must be looking at how profitable Apple is as a result of its total control. .... Beyond mobile devices, the hot topic for 2013 is the future of television. .... And Samsung isn’t stopping with phones and televisions (or memory chips and flat-panel displays where it is also the global leader). Chairman Lee Kun Hee recently gave a speech to employees underscoring the need to venture into new businesses. The son of the man who started the produce trading company knows that the future of his company will be products that don’t even exist today.

Out There

Thursday, January 03, 2013

The Nexus 4 Is A Beautiful Thing

I have been playing with it for a few hours now. I feel like I am all set. Made me feel like I bought the seven inch tablet in vain. I don't need it. This phone is so much of a better experience. And the screen is so responsive. I feel good.

Nexus 4: My First Smartphone

You go about downloading all the important apps. And you just hold it in your hand.

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

A Second Stimulus

I'd argue for a second stimulus. See that World War II hump when the debt exceeded 100% of the GDP? We are nowhere close to there yet.

The problem with the first stimulus was most of it was not spent on active stuff. Tax cuts don't count. Unemployment benefits don't count.

140 Billion Is Cheap

Spend money to take all Americans to the gigabit broadband era. That would be my idea of a stimulus bill.