Posts by qwarty 248 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Jun 2010
Will Lumia 800/900 update to WP8? Microsoft and Nokia have been very quiet on on whether Lumia WP7 customers are going to be trapped in WP7 or if, like Apple and iOS, an update to the new release is part of the deal.
If owners of the Nokia 900 have their phones obsoleted this autumn by WP8, could be game over for the Nokia marketing strategy. Odd nothing has been said so far.
Who actually pays for these simplistic 'if current trends continue' reports?
None of us have any way of predicting the Apple/Google/Microsoft split in two or three years time. Even those of us with far more experience in the industry than the Gartner researchers. oo many game changing variables in such a new market.
As commented on that Excite 13, Resolution of 13.3in, 1600 x 900. 138dpi is far too pixelated for 2012 expectations on a premium device. What is it about viewing distance that Toshiba and Lenovo don't get? At £1200 a bad joke.
I'd expect 1080p minimum on a 13" 16:9 like this. 16:10 would be a better choice for widescreen tablet though.
Also. Far better to have a detachable keypad/extra power unit for those of us who would like to avoid carrying about both Win8 laptop and tablet devices.
Excite 13 resolution of 13.3in, 1600 x 900. 138dpi is too pixelated for 2012 expectations except at extreme budget end of market. What is it about tablet viewing distance that Toshiba and others don't get?
I'd expect 1080p minimum on a 13" 16:9 like this. 16:10 would be a better choice for widescreen tablet though.
Back in 1992 I was using Windows NT 3.1 Beta, swings and roundabouts I guess with SunOS at the time. Sure unix if multiuser or remote access mattered but it came at a high price. Your university probably got heavy discount but for the general PC market unix was never a serious option unfortunately as vendors kept pricing it out of the market.
Guess your friend had the last laugh but piss poor or not, your bragging about being able to use a much more expensive PC back then can't have been an endearing quality.
There were (as far as I recall) 4/5 contenders for scaleable fonts for Windows. Adobe was the front runner but ruled out because Warnock wanted a royalty for each copy of Windows sold. Apple second - to have a defacto open standard and mutual self interest brokered that deal - I heard on impeccable authority that BillG was crowing on the phone to Warnock immediately the deal was done but nothing sharp or illegal here.
Coincidentally I knew one of the guys working on that software printer project and understand it was cancelled because HP etc. could not be persuaded to move away from PCL and PostScript. Your 'MS employee' can't have been in the loop.
More economics. Windows 3.0 worked on much of the installed base of PCs at the time (enough to run Word, Excel etc.), similarly with Windows 3.1. OS/2 (and later Windows NT) had higher memory and CPU requirements usually requiring a hardware upgrade. That was a key OS/2 v Windows discussion point in Microsoft itself around 3.0 launch (Windows 3.0 only had a small development team compared to OS/2. About 30 I think, including management etc.).
Personal preference, I like a more subtle approach to use of colour in UI even to the extent of being a fan of assertive black and white or grayscale styles where it is effective. But even for me, VS11 beta has gone way off tangent. Given the style weeks to see if grows on me, so easy to simply react thoughtlessly to change. Familiarity hasn't helped. Toolbar and solution explorer lose important structure without colour IMO.
If this was just an experiment fine, but lack of choice of a colour theme in the release would be a mistake.
And please, someone come up with a better icon for save than a 1980s disk icon.
@Mahou Saru
So true.
Seems the most selfish and self-centred individuals, with the narrowest experiences of the variety of human existence, are often the most vocal and judgemental in this kind of forum.
Technical topics, comments like 'I have briefly looked at pictures of Windows 8 Metro and would rather sell my firstborn than replace Windows XP' are easily passed by, maybe with a hint of guilt at laughing at those who may be of a 'special needs' persuasion.
When its about peoples lives, I do wish people could open their minds more.
Tegra 3 would be fine for 2012 if not for the less than state of the art GPU. Crazy NVidia of all the ARM vendors should be so uninspiring on graphics performance. If they can drive down to $199 this Summer with a decent touchscreen good to have some more competition in that space.
First wave of Ultrabooks are premium priced laptops missing premium features such as adequate display resolutions. The potentially appeal to only a very narrow slice of the market. As prices come down for these low spec models and we see some higher spec implementations, there'll be some sales figures worth discussing.
Nothing much has happened in the netbook form factor for ages so hardly surprising interest has waned in the tired product lines.
Too right.
The real message. From July 2012, cost per Gb no more than €700 (£584), July 2013 no more than €450 (£375) then July 2014 no more than €200 (£167). This for a service that normally costs about £10 in the UK.
The trick of hiding the real costs under per Mb figure should be the first thing to go.
@FatsBrannigan
I recently costed up a development of an iPad version of some games software currently PC Windows only. C++ the only option to hit performance in A5/5X CPU GPU combinations.
Commercially a Windows (XP and later) > iPad > Windows Metro picture in the market for this product looking to 2013. Android languishes in the maybe someday, lets see what happens with Android tablets in 2012 unfortunately (I gratuitously threw in an Android estimate too, cool but have to accept right now there is no commercial case when heavily budget constrained and there are real concerns about Android fragmentation).
I hope you are right about platform significance decline. I think you probably are in some app categories, especially where client side is lightweight. Unfortunately Apple/Google/Microsoft have shown declining interest in converging APIs during recent years and the per platform cost remains high. Message I'm hearing for heavyweight apps on tablets is Android is the loser for upcoming project starts and situation likely to continue unless Microsoft screw up, or Google and OEMs up their game.
Sure Apple would love to take 30% with OS X/iOS but its a major challenge for them to change a business model that would, without major changes, more likely take them closer to the current 6% Mac share of traditional PC than the current iPad or iTunes shares in their markets.
What if Microsoft decide to license WP9 for $4. Or free to full Windows licencees?
Will Apple decide to stick with primary focus on the high end £500 iPhone 4 model or plunge into more price sensitive markets.
Will the 2015 version of iOS/Android/WIndows be a flop or a hit?
Will carriers in UK/US move significantly away from the buy device on contract model?
With 4G, multicore faster processors and HD displays universal at high end in 2013, will the pace of change in phones slow and cost of a good enough phone for 90% potential users drop to £100 by 2016.
Will users get all enthuisiastic about HTC or Samsung skins on Android or will brand overlays remain as unpopular as they are now?
IDC cannot predict the answers to these questions and many more, each one of which changes the game. Meaningless predictions, apart from maybe their estimate for the total market size.
Its a new version of the SDK, not the hardware, I gather the plan is to update the SDK several times, as new features are included. I don't think we'll see new hardware apart from packaging integrations into laptop etc. until K2, probably a late 2013 product.
End users. K4W is more a hobbyist to pro developer and vertical market product and I expect will continue like that this year, maybe some fun Metro apps for the Win8 early adopters.
Yeah, why is it these brand new Ultrabooks have 5 year old graphics resolution specs? OEMs need to tell the panel manufacturers to up resolutions asap. Pathetic how Apple are allowed to keep on charging high margins while other OEMs are not competing in the MacBook Air 13.3" 1440×900 and better pixel densities.
Plently of us vocal on the issue, as with the 16:10 aspect ratio, including many of us with professional experience in the PC systems industry. So no excuse really for Novatech and the rest.
With Wii U launching about 7 years after the late 2005 XBox 360. A long time in silcon term, XBox cpu/cpu at 90nm since 2005 we've had 65nm, 45nm and the 32nm processe is mature. Lots of much less expensive transistors so yes, really ought to be more than a small step forward from XBoxPS3 even if its starting at sub £200 retail.
Though compatibility with Wii games and peripherals must be the main key to recapturing some of the family market, more so than raw performance.
@Hoagiebot. The reason is developers don't want the aggravation of developing Metro style apps to cope with the low resolution of these first generation netbooks with 1024x600 displays. In the larger scheme of things these netwooks account for less than 3% of all active PC systems and the display resolution will be as rare as the dodo in retail by the end of the year. Yes, losing 20% of vertical resolution from the 768 at readable text size actually makes a big difference to UI design and remember 1024x768 or better has been commonplace for 20 years and is largely superceded for new laptop, desktops, and all but the most budget upcoming Win8 tablets,
Ok, get it, you weren't after running iOS on a WOA device, wasn't clear in OP. But surely there are many Android devices already and no reason that Samsung or Motorola and the rest can't give users the option to remove WOA from any hardware designs they eventually ship. Don't get your beef with Microsoft and Apple offering out of the box for those happy to run iOS or WOA. If low price hardware is what you seek don't understand why you want to pay Apple or Microsoft for their OS only to remove it to install Linux.
I've seen Microsoft reps using Windows on MacBook Pro for demos, can understand how the 'why buy a £2000 PC when a £1000 PC does the job?' question comes up if they are looking for savings - seem to recall reading Microsoft S&M has been going through some restructuring so that makes sense.
With Windows 8 (Intel) tablets already around it would also make perfect sense to knock iPad on the head. Unlike MacBook, iPad doesn't run Windows, spending cash to place iPads in the hands of public facing staff using iPad sounds nuts. Surprised they didn't stop all that last year.
In other news, a recent memo turned up telling AppleStore managers they must not stock Windows 7 PCs. Who'd have thought.
Also stopped at CS3 thanks to the onerous upgrade policy. CS no longer a crucial toolset for me either, handy from time to time but not worth paying to walk the upgrade treadmill.
There must be a lot of us who have found CS useful but not essential, the Adobe approach of milking those who can't live without their software shrinks their potential market enormously in my opinion.
Whatever the 'holiday seasnon' effect, good to remember iPad was launched in March, same with iPad 2 and 3 so I wouldn't be hasty like some to mark WOA October as a potential fail point for Microsoft.
In fact a deferred launch with a flagship WOA tablet or ten in March/April 2013 would make a lot of sense. By that time Tegra 4 based tablets vs. iPad 4 could be an interesting competition and WOA would avoid the 'catch up' aura of Android in the tablet space that might attach to an October launch.
Surely Microsoft will have finally decided on a brand name for WOA by Summer so vendors could do something for October, at least to target developers. Hard to see room for a hit product so early. Personally I'm not interested in WOA until theres a quad-core iPad competitor unless I need one for WOA dev. work and not holding breath on that.
As far as x86 Win8 tablets/convertables before Christmas, pricing and specs are still complete unknowns so dteailed speculation pretty fruitless. A product with thought out spec. and aggressive priicing for holiday season could be a game changer but given the Ultrabook debacle hard not to be sceptical whether PC vendors have learned yet what needs to be done to make a successful x86 tablet. Also, Intel need to bring 22nm into thespace before the Win8 tablet platform can really shine on x86, as with WOA a matter for 2013.
Next year should be interesting, not least because of heavy pressure on Apple to change the yearly update model that has worked so well and pushed stock into the stratosphere. .
The 32Gb GSM/HSPA version iPad 2 cost (BOM+assembly) $336.60 at launch (http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/News/Pages/iPad-2-Carries-Bill-of-Materials-of-$326-60-IHS-iSuppli-Teardown-Analysis-Shows.aspx), now $271.00 according to iSuppli so a drop of around $65 about 20% over a year. So margin reduced but cost increase probably more in the 10% bracket not 30%. Somebody else can do the exact sums.
Good work by engineers at Sharp, LG and Samsung creating high definition screens at a reasonable manufacturing cost.
Now lets see some movement on laptops and monitors please, resolutions barely changed in 5 years, 768 pixels on 15" screen for goodness sake is this 1995?
Good for Apple for buying enough panels to boost the display industry.
Same experience here as 'dogged'. After a week or so using the customer preview on my (non-touch) desktop PC 25% of the time, grown used to it. Personalized my start screen, learned a few keyboard shortcuts and only a few mildly annoying features remain. Fact is I'm in desktop mode 95% of the time so largely no change from Win 7.
Metro style apps on small tablet size screens should be fine but attempts like the current Win 8 Kindle app on my 24" display simply leave their content hopelessly lost in space, many apps are not naturally full screen on a medium to large desktop monitor or laptop display. Point is that Metro style apps augment but in no way replace desktop apps. An obvious fact once you've spent some time with Win 8.
Who is this guy Matt Asay? And what universe was he living in when "Back in 2000, I was tempted by the Mac, but couldn't justify buying a machine that locked me out of the indispensable tool for business: Office."
Powerpoint originated on the Mac in the mid 80s only later coming to Windows. The first version of Excel was release by Microsoft in 1985 for the Mac, with the Windows version following a couple of years later. Likewise the GUI version of Microsoft Word was released for Mac years before Windows. The application bundle named "Microsoft Office" was released for Mac a year before the Windows release in 1990. The article link to the Microsoft announcement about Office being ported to the upcoming OS X release of Mac OS in 2001 was an expected statement about what was already the most successful software franchise on the Mac with a track record going back 15 years.
From an author boasting credentials that suggest at least a little knowledge of the PC business, it is almost unbelievable to read an article displaying such ignorance of the subject matter.
The new Microsoft strategy seems to be holding back the release (and money making opportunity) of Office for iOS until Windows 8 brings iPad competition. Whether this proves as successful as the earlier Mac first approach remeains to be seen.
The logic leading to the statement Windows is dead is almost as risible as the historically false premise. Interesting topic though would be interesting to read the opinion of someone from OSI Open Source Initiative who has some clue about what has happened in the past and where we are now.
Recently updated some Windows software and for an experiment recoded in C# for .Net over a weekend (almost 10K lines but only a small UI). About the same time again debugging til done.
Pleasing results. Program now runs on Linux - only tested 32 and 64 bit x86 but presumably PPC etc. as well. All with no recompilation silliness and config hell. OSX likewise. And runs on Windows as well.
MonoDevelop seems usable now. Visual Studio too.
Oh, and the JIT compilers for Mono and .Net benchmarked my application faster in C#/.Net/Mono than its C++ predecessor with static compilation.
With much of the hardcore *nix dev community struggling on with masses of unmanageable C++ as if it is still 1990, IMO its a fine thing Novell are putting the effort into Mono.
So what it came from Microsoft. C came from AT&T. Less FUD and mythology please from non developers.
At least thats how I read it, so long as you look after your health and avoid obesity. Apparently around 25% reckoned best sex after 40 - sounds about right to me.
The morality skew. Long term relationships, marriage, lots of positive to be said for it. But I've never personally heard anyone honestly claim a great sex life after 10-20 years as a couple. Just doesn't happen tho many pretend it does. Wonder how many in the survey would change their opinion if met someone new.
In otherwords interpreting survey as crap sex for under is 20s or whatever is just ageist twaddle.
Bing entertainment? A little more attention to detail on basic bing search would make more sense. I've just completed a trial week with bing as default search. Poor indexing of blogspot just one of many failings in the quality of search results, far inferior to google at present IMO.
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