TechFlash: “Robbie Bach and J Allard, founding fathers of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, are leaving the company as part of a broader restructuring that will give CEO Steve Ballmer more direct oversight of consumer businesses including Microsoft’s struggling mobile unit.”
Darn, I hope this doesn’t mean the end of XBox and/or Microsoft Game Studio Games. We love our XBox, and XBox Live, it would be a real shame to see that go away. Hopefully this announcement doesn’t slow sales.
Marco Arment: “I’ve been a Verizon Wireless customer since 2004: phones for the first 4 years, and data via tethering and EVDO modems for the entire time. I recently upgraded to a MiFi 2200 and renewed my data contract for another 2 years. I’ve traveled all over the east coast, mostly in New York, using Verizon voice and data services (data-only in the recent years), and I use their data service every day in Manhattan and the surrounding area.
It’s not that great. Among the problems I’ve had:”
Matt Drance: “Technical limitations notwithstanding, Verizon has a long history of forcing partners to remove or alter smartphone features, and add its own. Marco Arment talked about this just yesterday. The story appears to be improved in the Droid era, but it’s still a likely point of contention in any Apple-Verizon negotiations: iPhone either works the same on Verizon as it does everywhere else, or not at all.”
Even though I believe Verizon will offer the iPhone some day, their network and business practices do have warts, just like AT&T.
Robert Scoble: “But all this liking, er, lying, has me thinking. Just how accurate is all that data that Foursquare is collecting? After all, are you checking in only at cool places? Or are you also checking in at gas stations, super markets, or other lower-class places that you don’t really want to advertise that you’re at?”
Ahhh, the new version of “Keeping up with the Joneses.” Personally, I don’t care what you think about me. When I have a smartphone I’ll check-in at places I actually visit. Yeah, I go to Taco Bell. Yeah, I’ve actually had a few KFC Double Downs, so what, you got a problem with that?
I didn’t think so.
John Gruber: “Not only was he wrong about the iPhone, but he was even more wrong about Windows Mobile. Three years ago Ballmer was talking about 60, 70, 80 percent market share. This week, Gartner reported that Windows Mobile has dropped to 6.8 percent market share in worldwide smartphone sales, down dramatically from 10.2 percent a year ago. (The same report puts iPhone OS at 15.2 percent, and Android at 9.6.)”
Microsoft has really dropped the ball on mobile computing. They had a huge lead with Windows Mobile, managed to sit on it, and now Apple, Google and RIM have taken them to the woodshed for a good old fashioned butt whoppin. But, and yes, there’s always a but, never count them out of the game. Kin may be a complete bust at the moment, but they’ll learn from that mistake, and who knows, maybe they’ll open source their mobile effort just to try and stick it to Google?
Stranger things have happened, right?
J.K. Rowling: “(1980 – ) The Boy Who Lived, only known survivor of the Avada Kedavra curse and conqueror of Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle. Harry Potter joined the reshuffled Auror Department under Kingsley Shacklebolt at age 17, rising to become Head of said department in 2007.”
I’ve really fallen behind, Harry’s been Head of the Auror Department for three years.
I had a feeling we’d get some guesses from this weeks line. Potter freaks unite!
Our big winner is Mr. Chris Ledoux, congratulations Chris!
The correct answer was…
See you next Thursday.
Panic Blog: “Sounded like fun to us. Just one problem, though: we knew we had to load Stewart’s “cassette tape†source into the Apple //e’s audio input. But we didn’t exactly have a cassette deck lying around.
What did we have? An iPad.”
The Panic crew is so darned talented. Great apps, great design(just look at their beautifully designed weblog), and they’re real geeks.
What more could you ask for in a company?
Good morning movie liners, let’s get this show on the road, good luck!
Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.
Adobe.com: “In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody — and everybody, but certainly not a single company.”
I couldn’t agree more. It sounds like Adobe is finally embracing web standards. They finally agree Flash doesn’t have to run on everything! It’s about time they came around to realizing it… wait, what? That’s NOT what they’re saying? I’m confused.
Yes, I’m being a bit sarcastic, but that paragraph from the article says it all. Nobody controls the World Wide Web and the iPad and iPhone are not the World Wide Web, they’re simply devices that can view the web.
If Flash MUST be allowed to run on the iPhone and iPad who controls the web?
I like Adobe, I really do. They have a long history, full of great people, and products. I just don’t get the argument. It’s time to move forward. Put Flash on everything else, and focus on making best in class products.
Hey, if you don’t, someone else certainly will.
Good morning!
We have a winner, congratulations to Mr. Chris Ledoux!
The correct answer was…
See you next Thursday.