Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week

Cut, cut, cut!Good morning movie liners. Have you had your morning coffee? Good.

Here’s the line, good luck!

Actor #1: I blew up the building.
Actor #2: Why?
Actor #1: Because you made a phone call.

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

Categories
Apple Microsoft

Ain’t gonna happen

Barron’s: “Chowdhry says the new version of VS will allow developers to write native applications for the iPhone, iPad and Mac OS. And here’s the kicker: he thinks Microsoft’s presentation could be given by none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. (Or if not, at least Bob Muglia, who runs Microsoft’s server and tools business.)”

There’s no way this is going to happen. Great rumor though.

Categories
Social

On Facebook Privacy

James Robertson: “To some extent, that’s like keeping a highly personal diary, and then storing it on your front porch. Sure, the porch is your property – but it’s not exactly private. I sure don’t have any illusions about how private something I put on Facebook (or any site I don’t control) is – I run with a default assumption that “anyone can see it”.”

Great point. I’ve lived a pretty open life of the web for the past nine years. When you have a weblog, everything is visible, knowing that is half the battle.

If you don’t want people to see what you’re up to, don’t post it. The world is watching.

Categories
Microsoft

Microsoft Entertainment Division Shakeup

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.

Categories
iPhone

Verizon and iPhone Revisited

RibbitMarco 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.

Categories
Social

Robert Scoble, Liar

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.

Categories
Mobile

Gruber on Balmer on iPhone

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?

Categories
Potter

Potter Fact (Spoiler Alert!)

Harry Potter, boy wizardJ.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.

Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week answer

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…

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

See you next Thursday.

Categories
Indie

Gettin’ Geeky With It

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?