Netizen

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Mobile Operating Systems

Tux, the Linux penguin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is hard to beat free. And Android is free. And the integration with the Google services is a blessing. So where's the space for new mobile operating systems? Actually there is room for Google to offer free or super cheap data. There is room for free or cheap hardware. But operating system?

Google is the leading software player. Ask Apple. And it would be hard to out innovate Google's operating system.

But HTML5 does change things. At that point the Apple and Google app stores are no longer barriers to entry in the mobile space. Competition is good. There's always the allure of new, better features.

The Underdog Operating Systems Set to Shake Up the Smartphone Scene

Android was originally seen as an unbiased player with no hardware or sales revenues from handsets—a software “Switzerland” .... Tizen, a platform that’s supported primarily by Samsung and Intel; Firefox OS, created by the Mozilla Foundation, which makes the Firefox Web browser; and a version of the free, open-source Ubuntu Linux operating system designed for smartphones .... Tizen, Firefox OS, and Ubuntu are all counting heavily on Web-based HTML5 apps ..... Tizen, which grew out of Nokia’s MeeGo platform and (like Android) is based on the open-source Linux operating system, may have the best chance of success. Along with Samsung and Intel, its supporters include the wireless carriers Sprint, Vodafone, and NTT Docomo; electronics maker Panasonic; and the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. ..... novel features such as 3-D-type effects (photo browsing takes on the look of a spiraling cascade of images, for example). .... Firefox mobile apps are essentially Web pages, and the Firefox team came up with ways for Firefox OS to access all the hardware on a smartphone running the software. Even the phone’s dialer acts as an app ...... Firefox OS phones will be low on built-in memory at about 256 megabytes of RAM, and many will include a microSD slot so users can pop in their own memory card to store music, photos, and videos. He adds that the first phones are expected to cost around $100 ..... High-end smartphones running the OS will also be able to act as Ubuntu PCs when docked with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. .... 56 percent of cellphone users to be swiping and tapping on smartphones by the end of this year.

Manufacturing Was Never Going To Go Away

Global Warming (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cheap labor should be allowed to compete globally. That is only legitimate. But so should advanced manufacturing. The next industrial revolution will produce smarter goods in smarter ways with smarter energy. And goods are not going away. It is not like we have evolved to only consume food and broadband. And it is only a matter of time before China competes in advanced manufacturing as well. And that is good news. A robust China prevented the world going into a deep recession in 2008. China is successfully competing on bullet trains and clean tech, is it not? But if you believe in the expanding pie, it is a win win situation.

Cost is the reason reshoring is happening. Cost is the reason clean energy will happen. Bad air is a huge health expense, and health costs have to be factored in. Sandy - caused by global warming - cost tens of billions. That's a cost of global warming and has to be factored in.

Literally every good can be connected to the Internet. Every good can be made to be smart.

Transportation costs are also very real.

Just like a strong China is good for the world, a strong America is also good for the world. The global economy benefits the more giants it has.

And China is not going to stop manufacturing. Rising wages there is a sign domestic consumption in China is expanding.

Made in America, Again

“reshoring.” Although Chinese wages are a fraction of U.S. labor costs, rising shipping rates, quality problems, and the intangible costs of being far from headquarters all add up. That’s why some companies have begun to rethink the manufacturing equation....... Chinese wages are doubling every four years .... the vast majority of what Americans consume isn’t high-tech at all. We need to efficiently make ladders and hammers and paper and lights .... A refrigerator is made up of very little intellectual property and a lot of weight.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Facebook's Graph Search: A Long Time Coming

This move to deep search within the Facebook treasure troves is something I have pushed for for years now right at this blog. It just makes sense.

Graph Search highlights Facebook's unwillingness to bend to Wall Street

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Unsung Hero Samsung

English: Samsung Logo Suomi: Samsungin logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is almost like Samsung flew beneath the radar, and it is still not talked about as a major tech innovator by the mainstream press.

The Genius of Samsung

It is the world’s largest tech company by revenue, and in 2012 it became the world’s leading smartphone maker. .... Samsung’s smartphone market share in the third quarter last year beat that of Apple, Sony, HTC, and Research in Motion combined ..... Samsung’s smartphone proceeds have doubled in the past year ..... a brilliance exemplified by the way the company stumbled into success with the Galaxy Note: Samsung is willing to try anything. Actually, it’s willing to try everything. By building dozens of models across a range of product categories—it makes everything from phones to tablets to refrigerators to washing machines—Samsung can offer a device for every conceivable market niche. As long as its devices meet a minimum level of quality—and in general, its products are very good—and it manages to kill the failures and push the successes with great marketing, Samsung is sure to keep its place at the top of a roiling tech business. ...... The world’s tech-addled masses are switching from desktop devices to mobile ones, from bulky programs to sleek apps, from limited local storage to acres of space in the clouds. ..... By giving people what they wanted—even if it meant copying Apple—Samsung had become a global gadget powerhouse. ..... Since 2010, Samsung has deepened its technical prowess. Its design and workmanship have improved, and now its devices work just as well as Apple’s and no longer look like clones of Cupertino’s best stuff. ...... Samsung has become a master of marketing. Its commercials portraying Apple’s customers as mindless sheep were brazen—especially considering Samsung’s mimicry of Apple’s devices—but they were ubiquitous and beloved by Apple haters. They announced Samsung as a friendly, reasonable alternative to a cultish global brand. ...... there is something charmingly humble about Samsung’s see-what-sticks strategy. Other tech giants operate according to lofty philosophies. Apple prizes aesthetics and usability, Google cherishes the free flow of information, and Facebook wants to connect us all to one another. Samsung has no such philosophy. All it wants to do is make stuff that we’ll buy. ..... making phones that look exactly like your rivals’ devices, or making phones that are foolishly large, or making devices that run every conceivable operating system, or creating a fridge with a built-in baby monitor and an Evernote app ..... when one of its bets hits, Samsung knows how to push all of its resources into making it the next big thing .... The future is unknowable, so there’s no shame in guessing.