Results tagged “software”

Technology Review on how Android device makers are 'mutinying' and forking the code to their liking:

Google's Android device makers aren't happy. They're tired of making commodity devices that are merely vehicles for Google's Android OS, each indistinguishable from the other because of Google's rules about how Android can be implemented on them in order for them to qualify as "compatible."

These makers have seen the success of devices with custom OSes built on forked versions of the still kind-of open-source Android operating system, primarily Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, and they're itching to release their own.

Makes sense to me. Why would anyone want to be one of hundreds of different smartphones with the same OS?

The problem is, while device makers are solving the problem of differentiation in the marketplace by forking Android, they're requiring developers to make the extra effort to customize their applications to run on their custom 'flavor' of Android.

This Alan Kay quote keeps making more and more sense each day:

People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.

Here's a great piece by MG Siegler on Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobilility.

This is my favorite chunk regarding design:

Here's another, more straight-forward scenario for you. What happens when the iPhone 5 launches and everyone wants it? That includes many people currently using Android phones. After a few months of this, Google grows frustrated that none of their OEMs can release a device that matches the build-quality that Apple puts out there. But wait, they now have their own company they can at the very least use to apply to pressure the other OEMs to force them to do better work! Does Google also not play that card? Are you really telling me that they won't try to get Motorola to make the best products possible? Why the hell wouldn't they? This is a business, after all.

Maybe the iPhone 5 doesn't trigger that, but maybe the iPhone 6 does. Or maybe the iPad 3 does. Or maybe a Windows Phone does. At some point down the line, Google is going to run into this scenario. And there's nothing wrong with that. The tight control over both hardware and software is what allows Apple products to be Apple products. And now with webOS, HP appears to be moving in the same direction.

In the same way that Google used to not care about design, but now is starting to, I suspect they'll start to care more about full control over their products -- both hardware and software. They'll see that the overall consumer experience is tied to both -- they're not mutually exclusive. And Motorola gives them the opportunity to fully explore this. Why not use it?

It's taken a over 30 years in the history of the personal computer for companies to catch on what Apple has been doing from Day 1 - designing their own software for their hardware products. For Apple, software and hardware are 2 sides to the same coin, and it's a very valuable coin now.

It's a philosophy first put into words by Alan Kay in 1982:

People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.

Some PC vendors have taken note on how effective Apple's tight integration of hardware and software can be, but since we're in the post-PC era, this integrated approach to computing isn't happening with the personal computer - it's happening with phones and tablets.

We have Microsoft (software) forming an alliance with Nokia for their Windows Phone 7 OS.

We have HP (hardware) acquiring Palm (software) and continuing to develop webOS for their phones and tablets.

And now we have Google (software) buying Motorola Mobility (hardware) for $12.4 billion. Yes, the patents are crucial but you can't ignore the integration benefits Siegler mentions in the above quote.

There's dozens of analogies to this situation, but since this is Daily Exhaust, I'll give a car example.

Building a computer (read: laptop, smartphone, tablet) without having control over the software is like building a Formula 1 car without any say over how the engine is built. So you run into problems. Maybe the engine doesn't fit right in the chassis. Maybe there's controls and wires and valves you hadn't accounted for. Maybe the engine throws off the weight distribution on your car so everything has to be reengineered. Now think for a second, that in our hypothetical race car world, every other team on the track has the very same engine and the very same (or very different) problems.

Can anyone say fragmentation?

While I'm not sure I'm advocating for every PC vendor to develop their own operating system (or if it's even sustainable) I'm just asking, if you want to make the best computers why wouldn't you want control over hardware and software?

From First Today, Then Tomorrow:

How will this come about? Hardware, for what it is, will sometime soon become irrelevant. Your will have secure access to your personal data and your media from anywhere you are. You may buy a device, like a phone or a tablet, but they will be very inexpensive, almost disposable (and certainly recyclable). There will be no benefit from buying newer hardware. It will not be faster or have more storage. It will not offer new features. All that will matter is the software and the net and the net will be everywhere. For that matter, the word "software" will fall out of fashion. You will have apps, you will use features and tools. You will also stop using the word "computer."

Sounds pretty possible to me.

ComputerWorld: Amazon challenges Apple with Mac app download store

Amazon today launched a Mac-specific application download store that will compete with Apple's nearly five-month-old Mac App Store.

The new subsection of Amazon's massive online store, dubbed "Mac Software Downloads," kicked off quietly Thursday. Amazon has long offered software downloads for both Windows and Mac customers, but this was the first time that the company called out its Mac-centric "store."

Yeah! Take THAT, Apple! We challenge you!

. . . by providing people with another marketplace download software for your operating system and help increase it's popularity.

NYT: Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software

When five television studios became entangled in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against CBS, the cost was immense. As part of the obscure task of "discovery" -- providing documents relevant to a lawsuit -- the studios examined six million documents at a cost of more than $2.2 million, much of it to pay for a platoon of lawyers and paralegals who worked for months at high hourly rates.

But that was in 1978. Now, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, "e-discovery" software can analyze documents in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. In January, for example, Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto, Calif., helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.