Engadget Mobile:

We think its approach on the hardware front is absolutely spot on – by using high grade materials and a unique design, the Korean giant has certainly put together a device that grabs and merits our attention. What LG needs now is that same level of care and painstaking refinement to be applied to the software side of its phones.

Combustion Chamber translation: Great body design and paintjob, poor handling, interior and engine. Unfortunately, my initial suspicions were true.
Have we not learned from the RAZR?!
Focus on the software!

I’m looking forward to the grand opening of the first Microsoft Store opening in Scottsdale, Arizona.
If their launch party videos are any indication, we’re in for a real treat.

Here we go again.
Verizon has started an anti ‘iDevice’ campaign.
There’s a lot of different critiques to be made from this initiative, but I’m keeping this post short – keep your eyes on the road and study the track.
While it’s important to know where your competitors are relative to you in a car race, you’ll rarely see drivers spending the majority of their time looking at the cars to their left and right. They keep their eyes on the track so they don’t crash into the fucking wall.
Novel idea, right?
This is was has happened to the mobile industry since the introduction of the iPhone. Many, but not all, cell phone manufacturers has been busy running around trying to make touchscreen devices and app stores to compete with Apple.
That’s like Ferrari looking over at Lamborghini in order to figure our how to make a better Ferrari. The reason people buy a Ferrari isn’t because it has a lot of Lamborghini-like qualities, it’s because it has something very unique to it, the way it corners, the way the engine sounds, how the seats feel, how it smells, the sound the door makes when it closes and opens.
The reason the Palm Pre is such a great device is because of all the ways it’s unique and not like iPhone. It’s not trying to be something it’s not. It aggregates your social data differently, multi-tasks differently and manages windows and apps differently.
What companies who want to compete with the iPhone need to first figure out is what holes exist in the marketplace. They need to figure out how to make something people with love, not something that will beat Apple.
It’s like that Zen paradox saying, if you really want something, don’t focus on it and you will get it.
Keep your eyes on the road, Verizon …and study the track, or I guarantee you will crash and burn.

I love competition. Actually, everyone does. Even if you don’t think you’re competitive, if I spend enough time with you, I’ll find that thing you’re passionate about and exploit it.
An area I’m extremely competitive and passionate about is Apple products and mobile computing. I enjoy Apple vs Microsoft arguments and Blackberry vs iPhone arguments and iPhone vs Pre arguments.
But when it comes to the iPhone, I want real competition, not what we have in the United States. The bullshit exclusivity walls need to come down so that everyone on every carrier can pick whatever phone they choose. I understand that when Apple started building the iPhone, they had to partner with just one carrier in order to have it see the light of day.
While there are genuine Palm Pre fans on the Sprint Network and geniune Blackberry Storm fans on Verizon, there’s also iPhone fans on those networks that are choosing Pre’s and Bold’s for no other reason than that’s the closest they can come to an iPhone without switching carriers.
I want to see all the contenders on equal ground. I think the iPhone stands a chance of beating them all – Palm Pre, Blackberry Bold, Nokia N97, Motorola CLIQ – if they were all offered on all the networks.
What I’m suggesting is we treat all the networks like Apple is treating AT&T – a dumb, fast, reliable pipeline (and AT&T can’t even manage to do that).
I’m happy to see other countries like Singapore and Canada have access to the iPhone on multiple carriers, I just wish we could have that happen in the States.
When people don’t have to compromise, let’s see who they think is the best.

This is interesting.
While Apple continues its upward trajectory with iPhone sales and profits, it seems AT&T needs 17 months to break even on the iPhone. Once the iPhone (and Palm Pre, and Android phones) break free from its carrier exclusively, the powershift from carrier to phone manufacturer will be even more apparent.
We’re seeing a similar change happening in the music world. PBS MediaShift is reporting Record Labels Are Losing Power to Fans, Artists.
I say these are shifts for the better.

So Google Chrome Beta is out now, and despite it being very, very new, I decided to give it a test drive. It loads HTML sites really fast, but Flash is chuggy.
And occasionally it tosses up errors screens like the one above. Made me smile.

A big thank you to my office mate and friend John Gist for schooling me on this.

You know when your Photoshop file is all fucked up and has all its groups expanded and the layer styles are all exposed below their layer?

Like this:

Well, if you hold down OPTION when you click the arrow to close a layer group, when you re-open it, all layer syles and groups within it will be collapsed and hidden.

Like this:

Randal: “There was something else going on in Jedi. I never noticed it ’til today. They build another Death Star, Right?”
Dante: “Yeah.”
Randal: “Now, the first one was completed and fully operational before the rebels destroyed it.”
Dante: “Luke blew it up. Give credit where credit’s due.”
Randal: “And the second one was still being built when they blew it up.”
Dante: “Compliments of Lando Calrissian.”
Randal: “Something just never sat right with me that second time around. I could never put my finger on it, but something just wasn’t right.”
Dante: “And you figured it out.”
Randal: “The first Death Star was manned by the Imperial army. The only people on board were Storm troopers, Dignitaries, Imperialists.”
Dante: “Basically.”
Randal: “So when they blew it up, no problem. Evil’s punished.”
Dante: “And the second time around?”
Randal: “The second time around it wasn’t even done behind built yet. It was still under construction.”
Dante: “So?”
Randal: “So, a construction job of that magnitude would require a hell of lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I’ll bet they brought independent contractors in on that thing. Plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers–”
Dante: “Not just Imperialists. Is that what you’re getting at?”
Randal: “Exactly. In order to get it built quickly and quietly, they’d hire anybody that could do the job. You think the average Storm Trooper knows how to install a toilet main? All’s they know is killing and white uniforms.”
Dante: “Alright, so, they bring in independent contractors. Why are you so upset at it’s destruction.”
Randal: “All those innocent contractors brought in to do the job are killed, casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. Alright, look, you a roofer. Some juicy government contract comes your way. You got a wife and kids, the two-story in suburbia. This is a government contract which means all sorts of benefits. Along come these left-wing militants who blast everything within a three-mile radius with their lasers. You didn’t ask for that; you had no personal politics. You’re just trying to scrape out a living.”
from Clerks

The Principle of Evil Marksmanship (also known as the Stormtrooper Effect) states that enemy marksmen in action films are often very bad shots and almost never harm the main characters. The term first appeared in film critic Roger Ebert’s 1980 book Little Movie Glossary…

via Wikipedia

found via soulcookie

As people who read this site know, i have a penchant for Microsoft schadenfreude. I savor it, and then spit it into a bucket.
This one tasted pretty good (via TechConnect):

According to the data gathered by web analytics firm StatCounter, Microsoft’s decision engine, Bing, has seen its US search market share decline for the first time in September. Launched in June, Bing has gained market share in the summer months and topped 9.64% in August but as autumn rolled in, in September, it lost more than 1% and settled at 8.51%.

Talk about fizzling out quickly.

In the bar I told Dean ‘Hell man, I know very well you didn’t come to me only to want to become a writer, and after all what do I really know about it except you’ve got to stick to it with the energy of a benny addict.’

• from On the Road, by Jack Kerouac